CAESURA #17

Artisan Bar, 35 London Rd.,  Edinburgh, EH7 5BQ. Friday, 11 October 2013, 19:00.

ALEC FINLAY

Alec Finlay is an artist & poet based in Edinburgh. He has adopted such innovative poetic forms such as the mesostic, embedded-poem, and circle-poem. Recent poetic works include today today today (Playspace, 2013), A Company of Mountains (morning star, 2013) Be My Reader (Shearsman, 2012), Question Your Teaspoons (Calder Wood Press, 2012) Mesostic Remedy (morning star, 2009), Mesostic Interleaved (morning star & The University of Edinburgh, 2009), and Says You (Oystercatcher Press, 2009). Finlay established morning star in 1990, a press specialising in collaborations between artists and poets, including the award-winning pocketbooks series (1999–2002). He has published over twenty books and has won two Scottish Design Awards. In 2010 Finlay was shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize. He blogs regularly at www.alecfinlay.com.

SAMANTHA WALTON

Samantha Walton: has published — Amaranth Unstitched (Punch Press), City Break Weekend Songs (Critical Documents), tristanundisolde (Arthur Shilling Press); co-organises the techno-poetry night Syndicate; most recently published in/on — Black Box Manifold / Veersomes / Hi Zero / Archive of the Now; working on a book about madness, law and crime fiction (not bloody poetry).

JAMES OATES

James Oates has gained a reputation in the North of England for quality performances on the poetry circuit for over 25 years, more recently gaining the accolade of being one of the most consistently dynamic performers of poetry in the North today. This culminated recently in his representation of the North East in the 2009 Radio 4 Poetry Slam Semi-finals. He won the ‘East Durham Writer of the Year’ competition in 1997 in the
Prose (Open) category and has been featured on Amazing Radio. James had his first full Poetry collection published in 2007 (Wideyback) by Red Squirrel Press and has several pamphlet publications by other publishers.

Alec Finlay – some activities

April 2011 reader Alec Finlay has many irons in many fires. For details of his current projects, see below.

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Mountaineering in Counterpane

Alec will read ‘Mountaineering in Counterpane: a Report to the Armchair Mountaineering Club; other speakers include Misha Myers and Matthew Beaumont.

One-day symposium, presented by the University of Sunderland W.A.L.K. research initiative, seeking to interrogate the practice of walking in all its cultural, ethnographic, poetic, and geographical ramifications.

The Gymnasium, Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Thursday 28th July 2011, 12.30 – 17.00

For information contact Heather Yeung at: WALK@sunderland.ac.uk


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the road north

St Weems http://the-road-north.blogspot.com/2011/06/33-st-weems_23.html

Killin and Acharn http://the-road-north.blogspot.com/2011/06/7-killin-acharn_27.html

Monreith http://the-road-north.blogspot.com/2011/06/9-monreith.html

the hidden gardens http://the-road-north.blogspot.com/2011/07/53-hidden-gardens_07.html

You can follow Ken and Alec’s steps on their blog http://the-road-north.blogspot.com/

Visit The Road North website, where you can read Basho’s Oku-no-Hosomichi, the work that inspired the project http://www.theroadnorth.co.uk/

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mapping the road north

This hand-drawn map documents all of the ‘stations’ visited by Alec and Ken on their year-long journey, with a mirror-map listing Basho’s Japanese place-names.

You can view or download the full-size map here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1599958/TRN%20mirror-map%20%28final%29.jpg

For a free map, send an A4 SAE to Luke Allan, Studio Alec Finlay, 36 Lime Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ.

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the road north ‘sampler’

As part of the programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, Alec and Ken will present a ‘sampler’ of The Road North, displaying hokku-labels, tea-prints and whiskies that characterized their 53 visits. The sampler can be viewed at the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh from 5 August, running till 3 September. Edinburgh http://www.spl.org.uk/about/find.html

On 28 August, 12:00pm, Alec and Ken will be reading from the project, accompanied by director of SPL Robyn Marsack: @ The Hub (Royal Mile, Edinburgh) http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/venues/hub?page=1

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T/H/E/C/I/T/Y/S/A/S/T/O/N/E/B/O/O/K

Alec has created a new civic grove for Victoria Gardens, Leeds. Three inter-related works on the theme of the city & pastoral have now been installed outside Leeds City Art Gallery. Among the formal screen of London Plane trees, 10 nest-boxes painted with QR codes offer e-links to field-recordings of birdsong by Chris Watson; in the Red Oak trees by the gallery entrance, S/I/N/G  W/I/L/D  K/I/N/D  W/O/O/D is an arrangement in 4×4 grids on next-boxes, echoing a phrase from John Berryman’s Dream Songs. T/H/E/C/I/T/Y/S/A/S/T/O/N/E/B/O/O/K is a stone-carved piece laid in the ground at the front of the Gallery, carved by Peter Coates. The digital print of this work will be available from Ingleby Gallery.

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‘Moss on Stone’

Alec & Robin Gillanders have collaborated on a portrait of Stonypath, Little Sparta, for Boulderpavement, published by The Banff Centre, now online at http://boulderpavement.ca/issue004/moss-on-stone/

Alec Finlay: 4 new events


skying : art, landscape and renewable energy
Alec Finlay in Conversation with Malcolm Fraser and Owain Jones

Alec’s Leverhulme residency at Northumbria University is now underway. The focus of the residency is the contested identity of the windmill turbine in the contemporary landscape. To mark the occasion, he will be joined by award winning Scottish architect Malcolm Fraser and cultural geographer Owain Jones, to discuss the various identities – political, social, aesthetic, ecological, architectural – of the turbine in contemporary society and culture.

Venue: Gallery North, Squires Building, Sandyford Road, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST.

Time: Friday 20th May 2011 3.00 – 5.00 pm

To print-off an invitation, which includes a map:
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1599958/Skying%20conversation%20invite%5B1%5D.pdf>


The Road North : A matsuri Festival
This Sunday at The Hidden Gardens, Glasgow

This Sunday, join Alec and fellow poet Ken Cockburn for a matsuri festival at the Hidden Gardens, Glasgow. For the past year Alec and Ken have been travelling through Scotland, guided by the Japanese poet Basho, whose Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) is one of the masterpieces of travel literature. On 15 May their year-long journey will come to an end, and to celebrate they have invited some of those they met along the way to join them for an informal afternoon in the gardens. At 3pm, alongside performances by Gaelic singer Margaret Bennett, poets including Gerry Loose, Larry Butler and Colin Will, will read 100 haiku: heard together, the poems form a word-map of contemporary Scotland.


Venue: The Hidden Gardens, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow G41 2PE.
<http://www.thehiddengardens.org.uk/flash_content/flash_content.html>

Time: 12pm – 6pm; Reading and songs at 3pm

Print-off an Invitation:
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1599958/Matsuri%20Public%20Invite.pdf>

The Road North:
<http://theroadnorth.co.uk/>

Modern Empire : La Scatola Gallery, London
Featuring a new paper-work by Alec

This is Modern Empire’s first public exhibition, at La Scatola; it includes original drawings, paintings, collage, photography, and sculpture, and will feature Alec’s new paper-work word-mntn (1000 Munro, Corbett and Marilyn), alongside Specimen Colony, his 2008 collaboration with Jo Salter. Other featured artists include Vicki Bennett, Charlotte Bracegirdle and Sandy Grant. The Exhibition Runs 24.05.2011 – 04.06.2011. Private View Tuesday 24.05.2011 – from 6 to 9PM

To print-off an invitation:
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1599958/Modern%20Empire%20Press%20Release.pdf>

Modern Empire:
<http://www.modernempire.co.uk>

re:place Symposium : ‘Curating the Rural’
Reading from White Peak | Dark Peak by Alec Finlay and David Troupes

In 2009, re:place commissioned white peak | dark peak, for which Alec and a team of fellow poets such as Linda France, Geraldine Monk and Alan Halsey mapped the Peak District National Park, using a combination of walking, letterboxing, renga ‘word-maps’ and field-recordings.

The re:place symposium will explore how contemporary art practice can interrogate, illuminate and reshape the ideas of Derbyshire and of the rural; Alec will read from white peak | dark peak, the book cataloguing his project and containing additional commentary and poems. You can find white peak | dark peak on our Amazon store: <http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/shops/storefront/index.html?ie=UTF8&marketplaceID=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&sellerID=A2K5GHRHWY9FJE>

Venue:
Gothic warehouse, cromford, Derbyshire

Time: Fri 27 May, 11am – 4pm

To reserve a place email <info@re-place.co.uk>

white peak | dark peak website:
<http://www.whitepeak-darkpeak.co.uk/>

Alec Finlay at the Tuesday talk series

11.00am – 12.30pm, Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester, free , no booking necessary

The Tuesday Talks series invites leading artists, thinkers and curators to explore the driving forces, influences and sources of inspiration within contemporary art. The series is programmed by Professor Pavel Büchler and Bryony Bond, and is supported by the Manchester Metropolitan University.

10 May

Tuesday Talk: with Alec Finlay

Artist and poet Alec Finlay offers an insight into his work, through his own driving forces, influences and sources of inspiration.

LINK

The Other Room 23 reviewed

Interesting discussions from Matt Dalby and Steve Waling

It was an ambitious programme this time. Derek Henderson read via live stream from Utah – and the other readers (Carrie Etter, Alec Finlay and Ken Edwards) were streamed out to the wider world. The venue was pretty packed and there were a number of new faces.

Derek Henderson reading from the recently released if p then q collection Thus & was the highlight of the evening for me. The collection is described as ‘a systematic erasure of Ted Berrigan’s 1964 collection The Sonnets.’

READ MORE at Santiago’s Dead Wasp

The last Other Room was a really terrific night – to think that it’s already got to three years is quite stupendous. Derek Henderson live-streamed from Utah was one of the highlights, as was seeing the poet and editor Carrie Etter reading from her Shearsman book, Divining for Starters. Ken Edwards was also good, as was Alec Finlay. It was an interesting evening that brought up some issues.

READ MORE AT BRANDO’S HAT

The Other Room Itinerary rest of 2011

An exciting series of events already brewing. Advance notice for those of you booking your holidays to the south of France. All at The Old Abbey Inn, Manchester, 7pm start unless stated.

April 6th – Ken Edwards, Alec Finlay, Carrie Etter & Derek Henderson

June 7th – Steve McCaffery, Karen Mac Cormack, Geraldine Monk, Alan Halsey (THE OTHER ROOM IN ASSOCIATION WITH INFORMATION AS MATERIAL IN LEEDS – TIME AND VENUE TBC)

June 8th – Steve McCaffery & Karen Mac Cormack

July 20th – Chris Goode, Jonny Liron & Tamarin Norwood

August 24th – Phil Terry, Rachel Lois Clapham & David Berridge