words, words, words

words take form

Look at this fella:

Kuya Shonin (Saint Kuya) by Kosho

Kuya Shonin (Saint Kuya) by Kosho

"Kosho’s St. Kuya shows the holy man in the act of recitation. In striking contrast to the realistic figural representation, the artist has added a more conceptual element to the work. The syllables of the nembutsu—namu Amida butsu (meaning 'Praise to Amida Buddha')—are given physical substance in form of six small buddhas that emerge from the statue’s mouth. Paradoxically, the contemporary viewer would have identified the figure not by his carefully rendered face (which could not have been based on Kuya’s actual features), but by the presence of these visualized syllables, along with his traveling attire and gong. In the context of the temple, the manifestation of the recitation serves other purposes as well. It both attests to Kuya’s own salvation and acts as a model for temple worshippers, allowing the saint to continue teaching even in death."

From here. 

thinking radio

Listening to the Open Air series of sound pieces on Radio 4, commissioned by Artangel's Open project and broadcast earlier this year.

At just 3 minutes long, I particularly enjoyed Christian Marclay and Ruth Ewan's pieces which reminded me of this previous post, about Murke's Collected Silences by Heinrich Böll, from this time last year.

And timely, when I'm reading this article Outloud by Steven Connor too.

voice

'The voice is supposed to be suffused with spirit, and itself often have such an insufflating action. But the voice is not always quite itself, for there is much in the voice that is not altogether voice. Only that which has soul in it can give voice, says Aristotle, but then adds, almost in the same breath, there is more to voice than soul. For there are things in the voice that, while coeval with it, are not indigenous to it. The voice is not all Geist, it is full of poltergeists, noisy, paltering parasites and hangers-on, mouth-friends, vapours and minute-jacks. We must be on our guard against the encrustations and adulterations of this infinite interior malady.'

These texts about talking, the voice, thinking aloud by Steven Connor are interesting.
I love the multitude of words he uses to describe talking.
Here, here, here and here.

of others

Illustration by Catrin Morgan in The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus

While hooning around the internet (I do a lot of that these days while lounging at my nursing throne. That and reading) I was pleased to see that:

i) Ben Marcus is publishing a new book called Leaving the Sea — A New Collection of Short Stories in 2014.

ii) Granta has just republished The Age of Wire and String in a new edition with illustrations by the awesome Catrin Morgan (a PhD student at the RCA. I saw her speak a few months ago at the annual Falmouth University Authorial Practice Forum and it was great to hear someone talk so very intelligently and thought-provokingly about images and time). See a a review of the book here.

iii) On Ben Marcus's own blog there was this interesting piece of text from a never-completed questionnaire with David Markson:

The title of your book, Reader’s Block, draws attention to the fact that a reader can fail at something too.  The book evokes something not so frequently discussed: readerly ability, willingness, motivation.  While it would seem dangerous to become nostalgic for a time when reading was a skill and not just the opening of a slack orifice, it does create a challenge for an artist who happens to work with language.  Is being demanding a function, or a necessary result, of writing artistically?  If the actual ability to read and decipher a sentence is diminishing, does that concern you as a writer?  And do you have a particular relationship, at least in theory, to readers? 

It reminds me of thoughts that I was having while making this some time back and which I would still really like to take further. 

swing time

Just watching Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams and came across this incredible Fred Astaire Bojangles of Harlem dance sequence from Swing Time (1936). Start from 5:00 minutes in for the part I'm talking about…

sundays are for reading

Excerpt from Murke's Collected Silences, by Heinrich Böll, published in The Stories of Heinrich Boll. Unfortunately I only have GoogleBooks to read from, so great swathes of the text are hidden from my view. Will be buying on my return.

against orhodoxy: why publish?

Against Orthodoxy:
Why Publish?

Tuesday 3rd April 2012
9.30am - 4.00pm
Sherwell Centre
Plymouth University


Publishing spreads words, images, messages and ideas. Publishing can inspire, educate, challenge and change. Publishing is how we connect, how we share and how concepts grow.

This symposium will examine the persistent association between the publishing world, innovation and dissent. Speakers, via case studies, will discuss how publishing confronts and responds to the ever-changing world in which it exists. What did it mean to publish in the past, where does its future lie now and what are the benefits and pitfalls of publishing in the modern world?

Speakers
John Bently, Liver & Lights
James Brocklehurst, Mighty Meta
John Elford, Green Books
Roger Lane
Alex Ryley, Mutant Labs

Tickets
£30.00 includes conference pack,
lunch and tea breaks.
(Free event for Plymouth University staff & students)

Tickets available from 
http://estore.plymouth.ac.uk

For all enquiries contact
beth.richards@plymouth.ac.uk

Organised by
Message research group
Faculty of Arts, Plymouth University


www.againstorthodoxy.info
www.message-research.org.uk

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V and I have been working very hard to get this symposium up together for next month (one of several reasons why you've not seen much of me up here lately). Would be great to see a few of you there…Please spread the word!
Click on the poster to see it bigger.

upside down, left to right

Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Should have put this video up some time ago - it's been doing the rounds for a while. A really lovely documentary about our own Paul 'Inky' Collier and the Plymouth University Letterpress Workshop, produced by Danny Cooke. Makes me feel very proud to get to work alongside this fine, knowledgable gentleman.

viewing room

 

All images © L.I.E

I met Christopher Green from the Library of Independent Exchange the other week, and skipped over to see Viewing Room, their latest show at Plymouth College of Art & Design on its penultimate day. And what a fine show it was too. They had all sorts in there and it was beautifully displayed. You could get your hands on enough of it to feel satisfied, despite the fact that quite a lot was under glass. I saw the most recent edition of Making Do (gorgeous and inspiring to see) and my own In Absentia nestled in amongst good stuff. Always very gratifying. On the walls were various artists favourite books from their own personal collections, including big boys like Ed Ruscha, Jem Southam and Alec Finlay. Let's hope we see some more of L.I.E very, very soon.

it aint a feature-length, but…

Women's Studio Workshop from Baynard Bailey on Vimeo.

Look what I just got in my mailbox!
Had forgotten I'd even been part of it…

Does this make me famous?!

found & given vol. II

Image © Peter Till

This illustration by Peter Till, sent to me by John.

found & given vol. I

Kathryn was on a site visit for one of her interior projects and she photographed these for me…

of others: sugimoto, albergamo & steichen

Ionian Sea, Santa Cesarea by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 1990 © Hiroshi Sugimoto

Light Weavings by Giuseppe Albergamo, 1939 © Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987

 

Light Weavings by Giuseppe Albergamo, 1939 © Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987

Woods Twilight by Edward J. Steichen, 1899 © Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1933

These three rather admired at Night Vision: Photography After Dark at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York back in August. Am collecting images to go in my 'Black' folder. And later into my 'Black' publication.

next stop

Image © Isabel Cuadrado

Image © Isabel Cuadrado

Image © Isabel Cuadrado

Image © Isabel Cuadrado

Image © Isabel Cuadrado

Image © Isabel Cuadrado

Image © Fotis Flevotomos

Image © Fotis Flevotomos

Am very excited. Have just discovered that I will be going to Fiskars Village next summer for a month-long residency. This is the place that the original - and rather gorgeous - orange-handled scissors came from. After falling into wrack and ruin, it's now been re-inhabited as an artists' village. 

Very much enjoying seeing what the other artists have produced during their stints - in particular liking Isabel Cuadrado's daily shifting of the exhibition space (documented here) which is a process very similar to the way I would like to work when I'm out there. Also some of Fotis Flevotomos' drawings of the space around him.

of others: amelia bird

Barbaric Yawp © Amelia Bird

Barbaric Yawp © Amelia Bird

Some Lakes © Amelia Bird

Some Lakes © Amelia Bird

Amelia Bird set up a beautiful show of her work in the gallery before I left Women's Studio Workshop. Every day as I dashed through I'd look at a different piece of her work. Above, some favourites. I particularly like the way she puts her proofs to good use. The wall of hanging prints at the top being a prime example.

Amelia's currently working at WSW on a revamped version of this edition of Walden Marginalia that she created during her Masters.

parabola issue 2

The first issue of Parabola came out last year and was a huge success, winning a Media and Innovation Award for Best Graphics. Parabola is now working on issue two and raising cash through WeFund to get it printed. Their campaign is 96% funded and they just need £85 to reach their target in three days time. Maybe you can help? Not least, if you make a pledge to donate (from just £10), there are some little perks for you too, so it's well worth while supporting this independent publishing venture.

the silentists

‘As to the doubts the author experienced while writing this book, they were characterized variously as suspicions, regrets and certainties. The phrase “known failure” was used most often in the early evening, generally muttered “under his breath,” a technical impossibility, since at the time of this writing spoken language has yet to occur without breath, or under it or on top of it, despite the efforts of the female Silentists to deploy “words without wind.” (The author concluded that for breath to occur without a word attached was a violation of what breath was for – namely and exclusively as a transportation vehicle for language , a small car meant to compete in the space normally reserved for birds and wind; thus breathing itself was considered the first language, and if the author breathed at all, he should always, at the least, be sure to layer a word into the breath, so as not to be wasteful with the vehicles he dispatched into the air, often choosing the word “help,” for its simplicity and accuracy and full-time relevance.)’

Ben Marcus, Notable American Women

the wayzgoose

This evening was Wayzgoose at WSW. And not a bad turn out bearing in mind a hurricane may well be hitting us in a few hours. So this is the deal with the Wayzgoose, which is not a term I was familiar with previously:  

Hundreds of years ago, printers celebrated the end of summer with a festive event for their workers. Summertime meant long days of setting type by sunlight. Before bracing for a long winter of frozen fingers and setting type by candlelight, they cooked a goose, tapped a keg and said good-bye to the season in high spirits.

WSW did it their own way with a sale of prints, barbeque, keg of beer, live music and some printing in the studios. It was fun! Shame I got distracted and stopped taking photos when the hoards arrived. 

Now though, we're battening down the hatches and seeing what tomorrow brings our way…

desert island

Desert Island comic book store on 540 Metropolitan Way, Brooklyn, just along the way from where I'm staying. A whole array of stuff, from very classic comics, to short run zines, posters, books and other publications that may or may not be termed artists' books. Pretty much all you could want on the subject of comics.  
And the window display there at the moment is fab! The picture above doesn't nearly do it justice. But everything is hung or constructed to be freestanding, and it just has a really lovely naive and playful quality about it. It looked like it was fun and free to make. Designed and created by Hyesu, you can see some better pictures of the window display here and its creation on her blog here and here.

Lastly the guy who runs Desert Island is also really friendly, helpful and genuinely passionate about the shop and the subject.  And it seems to be open just about all the time…