James Davies

Scott Thurston’s Internal Rhyme now archived at PENN Sound

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Occassional Readings, Furzeacres on Dartmoor in Devon, UK, July 4, 2010

In this performance Scott Thurston reads the entirety of his book Internal Rhyme (Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2010). Divided into four sections, the book comprises a sequence of eighty poems in total, each constructed in four four-line stanzas which can be read in a vertical as well as in a horizontal direction. For this performance, Thurston experimented with reading two of the book’s sections in both directions. Taking the poems in groups of five, he used two approaches: firstly, reading all five in one direction and then returning to read the same five in the other direction and, secondly, reading each poem in one direction immediately followed by the other direction.

Internal Rhyme develops Thurston’s preoccupation with time and process as compositional elements, as seen in his previous book for Shearman, 2008’s Momentum. The subjects and themes are diverse and include poems responding to Blake, Klimt and Twombly alongside refigurings of the theoretical works of Alain Badiou.

LINK

Blackbox Manifold 6

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Including tributes to Edwin Morgan, and poetry by:

Niall Campbell
Joseph Donohue
Howie Good
Chris Hardy
Morgan Harlow
Carla Harryman
Christine Herzer
Ishion Hutchinson
Andy Jackson
Michael Leong
Rod Mengham
Mary Noonan
Frederick Pollack
David Prater
Rufo Quintavalle
Ron Silliman
Matthew Sweeney
Jon Thompson
John Welch
J T Welsch

LINK

Thus &: An Erasure of Ted Berrigan’s The Sonnets out now from if p then q

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Ted Berrigan’s seminal The Sonnets is renowned for its famous use of cut up technique and reconfiguration throughout the sequence. Derek Henderson’s erasure Thus & eliminates all words and typographical duplications. In addition to the strikingly beautiful, often minimalist, sonnets created by Henderson, Thus & asks new questions of each Berrigan sonnet and the sequence as a whole. Thus & reveals (conceals) not only the clusters of phrases/lines that were cloned by Berrigan but also words which he repeated; many obviously subconsciously. What is left in Thus & is part skeleton, and underbelly, of maître-sonneteer Berrigan’s The Sonnets and part alien remix by techno-magician Derek Henderson.

Sampler & Concordance
THUS&_sampler
THUS&_Concordance

LINK TO BUY FROM IF P THEN Q

Veer About

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Huge online issue of Veer about hosted at Intercapillary Space.

Contributors:
Edited by Adrian Clarke and William Rowe.

Veer About includes work from: Jennifer Pike Cobbing, Scott Thurston, Karen McCormack, David Caddy, Gavin Selerie, John Cayley, David Miller, Maggie O’Sullivan, Harry Gilonis, Chris Paul, Matthew Martin, James Harvey, Antony John, Doug Jones, Steve McCaffery, Nat Raha, Wayne Clements, Steve Willey, Mike Weller, Martin Gubbins, Sean Bonney, Pansy Maurer-Alvarez, Richard Owens, Gregorio Fontén, Steve Fowler, Johan de Wit, Frances Presley, Rod Mengham, Becky Cremin, Justin Katko, Elizabeth Jane Burnett, Stephen Mooney, Greg Thomas, Mendoza, Rob Holloway, John Seed, Jimmy Cummins, Allen Fisher, Niamh O’Mahony, Keith Jebb, Carol Watts, Rose van Hensbergen, Aodán McCardle, Peter Philpott, Tom White, Phillip Terry, Gilbert Adair, Ryan Ormonde, Edmund Hardy, Juha Virtanen

LINK

LIKE by Colin Herd review

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LIKE by Colin Herd
Knives Forks and Spoons Press, 16pp
Reviewed by James Davies

• I LIKE the way found-texts are written which aren’t quite found-texts

• I LIKE the voice

• I LIKE the alleviated status of the trash written about without that puke-ingusting feeling that you are ‘viewing everyday objects in an extraordinary way’

• I LIKE the condemnation of capitalism

• I LIKE the grotesque & squiggy imagery; esp the mushyness of George Bush Sr. Do sculptures at Madame Tussaud’s get melted down like the Wicked Witch of the West or do they go into storage at the Tate Gallery?

• I LIKE the way the art criticism is done here

• I LIKE the juxtaposition of magik and humanism: see Franz Kline poem

• I LIKE Franz Kline any day of the week

• I am sorry Denise Levertov was so mean to Colin Herd but kinda glad also

• I enLIKED to hear him growl. Thank you so much for teaching me how to growl

• There is this woman I LIKE a bit (she’s so naff), who I’ve seen advertising non-aging cream, but I had never heard of Jane Rafter before but I am GLAD that I have done now

• Just LIKE Colin Herd I enjoy watching crap TV sometimes and I LIKE to satirise it. Crap TV is one of many things that needs to be satirised and is evidence enough to agree with Adorno’s threadlike arguments

• I LIKE Colin Herd’s poem about Eva Longoria even though I don’t know who the hell she is: I’m not going to google her but will no doubt get told who she is subsequent to this review

• I LIKE to laugh; laughter is both the happiness and sadness of the people, our escapism and our warning

• I LIKE the way Colin Herd does détournement

• I LIKE to start my day with Nescafe (LIKE hell I do)

• I LIKE ‘LIKE’

Rob Holloway, Flesh Rays from Crater Press

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The Crater Press is pleased to announce a new articulated double-sided broadside by Rob Holloway from his sequence-in-progress Flesh Rays. The pamph./side contains 7 brain-squeezers; here’s some explanation:

Crater XI samples from the early stages of Rob Holloway’s new prose sequence ‘FLESH RAYS’ that one day will stretch to 107 such sections. One sentence reads ‘All sun’s got inside breath, soft as a head without a ghost.’ Another, ‘Shift left red sun, I’m cutting out a girl of paper.’, so perhaps it’s all about the sun. Then again, we’re instructed to ‘Rinse roads as if bricks were still wrapped in their towels’ so best we head for the hills. The ‘two Asian women soldiers at Checkpoint Charlie’ mentioned in the section ‘Moulded Books’ are real. ‘Reassembling the central crabapple’ is the ultimate purpose of the sequence.

LINK

Born After 1924 / Merzman

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Exhibition Preview
BORN AFTER 1924
EXHIBITION PREVIEW: Thursday 17 February, 6-9pm – All Welcome!
EXHIBITION CONTINUES: 18 February to 10 April 2011

Tim Noble & Sue Webster Gregor Schneider

Ingo Gerken and invited artists: Matti Isan Blind, Madeleine Boschan, Rainer Ganahl, Antonia Low, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Reto Pulfer, Gregor Schneider.

Castlefield Gallery is proud to present BORN AFTER 1924 project by German artist Ingo Gerken. Interpreting the contemporary legacy of the Merzbarn[1] and Kurt Schwitters in the UK, Castlefield Gallery has invited Gerken to respond to Schwitters’ Merz Magazine (issue 8/9) of 1924 called Nasci[2]. The theme of the magazine, Nasci, meaning ‘being born’ or ‘becoming’, was co-edited with Russian Constructivist artist El Lissitzky[3] forging an alliance of Dadaist and Constructivist ideals and included reproductions and texts by Vladimir Tatlin, George Braque, Man Ray, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Mies van der Rohe among others.

The exhibition will become a site-specific and physical manifestation of Gerken’s collages which will include other invited artists, from the UK and Germany as ‘articulations’ or ‘punctuations’ of his own practice thereby resulting in a group show.

[1] Kurt Schwitters’ (1887–1948) Merzbarn is located in a remote woodland in Cumbria and stands much as he left it, incomplete after his death in 1948. After considerable discussions about its future which involved the British pop artist Richard Hamilton, the surviving Merzbarn wall was removed for safe keeping and presented by its owner, Harry Pierce to Newcastle University Hatton Gallery in 1965, where it is now on public view. The Merzbarn building itself still survives and contains evidence of Schwitters’ original working methods and materials.
[2] Nasci is the Latin word for ‘nature’, ‘being born’ and ‘becoming’.
[3] El Lissitzky (1890 – 1941) was a Russian Constructivist designer and artist.

For further information please go to http://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk

BORN AFTER 1924 is part of MERZMAN. MERZMAN is a city wide programme of exhibitions, performance and public events across Manchester exploring the contemporary legacy of Kurt Schwitters in North West England, coordinated by the Littoral Art’s Trust.

BORN AFTER 1924 is kindly supported by ATLAS Bar & Café; Manchester, Barefoot Wine’s and Mint Hotel; Manchester. Please join us for the BORN AFTER 1924 after preview party at ATLAS Bar & Café from 9pm, Thu 17 Feb 2011.
BORN AFTER 1924 visitors receive 10% of their total bill when ordering food at ATLAS Bar & Café.

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TALK
Tues 15 Feb, 11am
Ingo Gerken Talk

Location: The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk
Coinciding with his exhibition BORN AFTER 1924 at Castlefield Gallery, Ingo Gerken will talk about this project and his wider practice.
FREE/BOOKING NOT REQUIRED

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PARTY & LIVE PERFORMANCE
Thurs 17 Feb, 9pm
BORN AFTER 1924 Launch Party & Mini MERZ Kabaret

Location: Atlas Bar, Deansgate, Manchester, M3 4LY
Celebrate the launch of BORN AFTER 1924 and Merzman with a live performance of Schwitters’ Ursonate sound poem by musician/composer Florian Kaplik and guests.

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TALK
Thurs 10 Mar, 6pm
Ian Hunter and artist David Medalla in conversation

The Spirit of MERZ: an interview and presentation by international artist David Medalla with Ian Hunter Director, Littoral Trust. http://www.merzman.co.uk

More on: David Medalla was born in Manila, Philippines in 1942 and is a pioneer of kinetic, land and live art. His work ranges from sculpture and kinetic art to painting, installation and performance art. He lives and works in London, New York and Paris.
More on: Littoral is a non-profit arts trust which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change.

FREE EVENT /BOOKING RECOMMENDED To book please call the gallery on 0161 832 8034 or email events@castlefieldgallery.co.uk with your contact details and number of places.

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TALK
Fri 18 Mar, 2pm
Artists’ Survival: Interview with Billy Childish

Ian Hunter Director, Littoral Trust will interview artist, poet, photographer and musician Billy Childish on working and living as an artist today. http://www.merzman.co.uk

More on: Billy Childish is a cult figure in America, Europe and Japan. A poet, musician and painter in 1999 Childish alongside Charles Thomson founded the Stuckism movement.

Alba Londres Launch Event

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You are invited to the… / Estáis invitados al…

Release of Alba London Magazine Issue nº1

On the 17th of February at 6.30pm at the Instituto Cervantes’ Auditorium.
Come along!
Tim Atkins, Gregorio Fonten, Alfonso Grez and Harry Gilonis will be reading their poems.
We will provide some wine!

For more information visit our website: http://www.albalondres.com

Cervantes Institute
102 Eaton Square, London SW1W 9AN, Reino Unido
+44 20 7235 0353
londres.cervantes.es

Looking forward to see you! Thanks for your support.

Lanzamiento revista Alba Londres

El día 17 de febrero a las 18:30h en el Auditorium del Instituto Cervantes.
¡Estáis invitados!
Tim Atkins, Gregorio Fontén, Alfonso Grez y Harry Gilonis nos leerán sus poemas y traducciones.
¡Habrá vino!

Para más información visitad nuestra web: http://www.albalondres.com

Cervantes Institute
102 Eaton Square, London SW1W 9AN, Reino Unido
+44 20 7235 0353
londres.cervantes.es

Os esperamos! Gracias por todo el apoyo.

Osa / Merzen

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Based on reflection of the work of artist Kurt Schwitters, osa is developing an accessible and tangible installation in the space of CUBE gallery in Manchester.

osa’s installation refers to Schwitters’ own collage technique which he called “Merz”, a method of rearranging collected objects such as papers, timber, wire, text snippets and paint.

The installation will transform the gallery space by using materials collected and provided by the city of Manchester, with the aim to blur the border between existing space and installation i.e. frame and content.

As with city development itself, the idea deals with the transformation process of the materials through the application within the installation as well as (the transformation) of the whole (overall system) as a reaction of addition and overwriting. This leads to a deliberate context displacement.

The installation will grow in three stages (17-19 February, 26-28 February, 25-28 March) and visitors are encouraged to become part of the development process by bringing their own collected materials of the built environment into the gallery.

Parts of the gallery space will be turned into a material store which not only acts as a collection point for the different ingredients of the installation, but also links back to the former function of the building (warehouse).

As within the contemporary pluralistic city (CPC), existing relationships will be shifted through continuous surprising and unexpected interrelations of the single elements as well as and new ones will be uncovered; without a descriptive manual.

“Merz is sensing without knowing”, Kurt Schwitters, 1920.

For more information and press images, please contact: info@cube.org.uk, 0161 237 5525.

Wave us Goodbye: today in Manchester at Screen at the Triangle

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Poetry films on the BBC Big Screen in Manchester will commemorate the Holocaust, bringing together the memories of older Jewish people. 

The project, titled BRING LIGHT TOWARDS YOU, is one of many arts projects run by the arthur+martha arts organisation. In the build-up to Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January, poetic texts created by the older people, most of whom are Holocaust survivors, will be displayed ‘in lights’ on the Screen at The Triangle in the city centre. These films will screen in ‘sets’ roughly every half an hour between other shows and run for a week.

The Holocaust has often been linked to trains: millions of people, particularly Jews, were taken to concentration camps by train before being killed in the notorious Nazi ‘Final Solution’ during the Second World War. These 30-second films give fragments from accounts of their journeys: to destruction and journeys of escape.  

Artist Lois Blackburn and poet Philip Davenport worked with older Jewish people living at The Morris Feinmann Home, Manchester, exploring issues related to the Holocaust. “To hear these stories has been a powerful, haunting experience,” said Davenport. “The poems are little pockets of emotion that bring alive one of the most notorious events in  recent history. It’s hard to imagine the reality of the Holocaust because it was so huge, so brutal. What these tiny moments of remembering do is connect to ordinary people’s experience.” 

Lois Blackburn added: “As in all our projects, we talked to people about the small details of their experience, because it is people’s everyday lives that collectively make history. It’s the sandwiches your mum made, or the look on your sister’s face as you said goodbye. The fact that we’ve been able to help people transform these memories into messages that will be seen my thousands is an extraordinary privilege.”

Maria Turner, Activities Co-ordinator at the Morris Feinmann Home, described arthur+martha’s work as: “Sensitive and caring.” 

Some of the pieces were shown on the electronic billboard in Piccadilly Railway Station on Holocaust Memorial Day 2009, but this is the first time that the whole sequence has been seen. arthur+martha have continued to develop the project in partnership with Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, working with young people with special needs, Roma children and many others.

THE FULL SEQUENCE OF TEXT ANIMATIONS CAN BE VIEWED AT

http://www.arthur-and-martha.co.uk/pages/kindness%20samples.htm