The Bury Poems

Talking about the publications of the Text Festival, I pulled out a copy of The Bury Poems from the bookshelf, and was surprised to find alongside Tony Lopez, Robert Grenier, Ron Silliman, Geof Huth, Phil Davenport, Carol Watts and Holly Pester, there were three poems by me. I'd completely forgotten. On reading them, I only just remembered writing two of them, and had no memory of the third. The second was inspired by something Riiko Sakkinen wrote, so I think I will save posting that until November when his exhibition opens in the Bury Sculpture Centre. The other two are below. 

You can purchase the Bury Poems from the Bury Art Museum shop. 

(The Art of Pedestrianisation referred to in one of the poems was going to be the title of the next book after my last book The End of Poetry ; Strangely I was reminded of what this was going to be about this week at the Royal Academy - hope this isnt a sign of the return of the poetry virus).

The Tragedy of Althusserianism

The tragedy of Althusserianism he is
the worst thing that could happen other types of hysteresis
also give rise to objects quite like free objects, in that they are left
adjoint to forgotten, not necessarily
the absence of rebel strangled instead of barricading

urelements feels/thinks/flashing lights/facades
- Them unphotgraphed seconds
Through artists have an excuse: Save us from poets
lumbered with poets as list-makers
The obscure reveries of the inward
gaze as the effect of our ignorance is Time.


Trehy
I am the last
Considered an autotopology
thus elimination of intermediate inference
the soldier who died for perspective
of the Art of Pedestrianisation unwritten -
the mechanics of walking and falling.

Despite rigorously the inattentive secretary
other possible Trehys from Leibniz
originating parameters
a continuous closed circuit of periphrasis

Catharist feeling abruptly out of date
our happiness gives way to the next by-passed by
a long distance

Scorn for slow mediocrity, contained of two types of obscurity
And for reasons of yield I am uniformly continuous

from superclasses: A taxon comradeship

baffles the man counting on the abacus.
What is the hysteretic source of the heredity
of prefiguration the which began in Shicho markers' historic
clinicla observations of life-threatening descriptive, retrospective
historical characters nonholonomic navigations susceptible to fall.

The Australians Are Coming (to Bury)

Over the next week/month Bury celebrates Australian contemporary art. On Saturday afternoon (yes, I know it's an odd time), two shows - one an installation  Illuminating configurations : re forming the line; edges, splats and cuts by Irene Barberis and (curated by Irene) a survey of contemporary Australian drawing featuring 100 works. I'm very excited to see Irene again, we first met in Tokyo back in 2006 and it's always a pleasure to see her and her work. (some of you might have seen her installation in Bury alongside Mike Parr in 2011). 
Both shows run to 13 August. The Contemporary Australian Drawing has organically evolved from six previous exhibitions around the world, from Chicago and Rome to Dubai. The participating artists were asked for a visual response to two texts on writing/drawing, taken from essays by Serge Tisseron and Michel Butor, “All Writing is Drawing’, and ‘the Space of Writing, what is that?’.  

All artists were supplied with a standard size and weight paper. The thoughtful and enthusiastic response of all artists concerned has resulted in this extensive exploration and examination of the themes, ‘All writing is Drawing’ and ‘the Space of Writing'. 

The Australian intervention in the Sculpture Centre is Jayne Dyer working in collaboration with Wayne Warren. Funnily enough I met Jayne in Beijing through an introduction from Irene Barberis, and we immediately got on very well. She has shown in Bury before - you might remember her piece in the Text Festival.

Last Thing previews on 17 June, inspired by Paul Auster's 'In the Country of Last Things'; the book presents a world where architecture and space constantly vanish, preventing individuals from building their own identity relative to the space they inhabit. An arena where matter is scarce and what is available is regurgitated until it becomes unrecognizable or depleted. 'Last things' documents fictional spaces about to disappear. 

Three great shows not to be missed. 

Merry Christmas: "twelve"

for the first ethic of christmas my true love sent to me an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the second ethic of christmas my true love sent to me two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the third ethic of christmas my true love sent to me three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the fourth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the fifth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the sixth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the seventh ethic of christmas my true love sent to me seven inner experiences six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the eighth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me eight possibilities of realising seven inner experiences six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the ninth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me nine ladies dancing eight possibilities of realising seven inner experiences six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the tenth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me ten favourable circumstances nine ladies dancing eight possibilities of realising seven inner experiences six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the eleventh ethic of christmas my true love sent to me eleven singular conjunctures ten favourable circumstances nine ladies dancing eight possibilities of realising seven inner experiences six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth for the twelfth ethic of christmas my true love sent to me twelve harmonious equilibria eleven singular conjunctures ten favourable circumstances nine ladies dancing eight possibilities of realising seven inner experiences six phenomenal modalities five extrinsic justifications four errors of dogmatism three veils of illusion two hierarchies between body and soul and an ambiguity in a non-temporal truth


(first published in 2005)

Women in Art - Bury Art Museum

Funny how when you're busy you don't notice you're own patterns. I only realised this morning that all the contemporary art installed currently at Bury Art Museum is by women artists: Liz West "Colour Collection" in the Museum;

Alison Erika Forde "There's Nothing for you here" in the gallery;

Jo Clements "Retrospective" in the video gallery

Hilary Jack "The Late Great Planet Earth" in the Sculpture Centre

And Penny Anderson's 'Speech Bubble' Christmas Tree on the Ring Balcony

 

I quite like that there wasn't a plan for an all-women display - and it was just the brilliance of the work that brought it together. 

Two new shows at Bury

National Poetry Day

Twitter tells me that somewhere in the world it's National Poetry Day and in the threatening context of the Conservative Party conference which thankfully ended yesterday in Manchester, I thought I'd put up a poem from my last book: The End of Poetry. It's called 'Intolleranza' after Luigi Nono's socialist opera  

Intolleranza

Lower than vermin

… the gates are opening. Our murderers are here.

Suspended Song

Today: Conceit: will shoot us truth construct it Instruction all

Bijective the quiet fragile of this work to be silent and 

Instead the listener who is silent.

minuend individual receives

From it, fretting is overwhelmed we an idea opposed

mereologic fragility and have a collective

A new audience and a presence of nilpotent

unfolding of a silence to die in company

null conquest of the interior of musical structures taking Different forms, shining paths as revolt.

FIST. FITS. The favoured design for the future

Flow class features

I will love you from beyond the grave

… the gates are opening. Our murderers are here.

Total Recall

Phil Davenport installing his "The Weather, in lipstick" -
and part of Marco Giovenale's "asemic encyclopedia"

As mentioned in the previous blog, this year is the 20th anniversary of me starting work in Bury - the 4th of August to be exact. I only came across this by accident in some old job papers and thought maybe we'd have a party or go for a quiet meal - whatever. Anyway, I mentioned it to Phil Davenport some months back in passing and it turns out a surprise was hatched. Phil talked to Derek Beaulieu over in Canada and the two realised that it was not only my 20th anniversary but also the 10th anniversary year of me creating the Text Festival. To wit, the pair invited various artists involved in the Text over the years to make a commemorative artwork. Though I should say that I am humbled and honoured that so many artists actually did (I am, of course), typical of Phil and Derek, instead of celebrating my genius or my contribution to the history of art/poetry, adopted a framework of memory -  as they say: "How do you remember the people who are important to you? How do you conjure your shared past? Is it in images, a sound, a smell, a touch? Or do you use words?" I've obviously not quite cracked the cult of the personality, but still it's flattering and very nice of everyone. 

Part of Erica Baum's Total Recall

The result is a pop-up exhibition which was installed this week. Originally it had a fancy/obscure title TEXTfestschrift but Erica Baum's piece "Total Recall" so nailed the moment, that as the installation unfolded it felt like that had to be the title of the display. To make it manageable/low cost, Phil and Derek limited everyone to A4 paper, which magnifies the displays guerrilla aesthetic in the classical space of the Gallery ring balcony.

The exception to the A4 rule came from Lawrence Weiner who suggested installation of a work originally made for Leo Castelli in 1977. It was very flattering for Lawrence to make the connection between me and Castelli. 

TOTAL RECALL includes work by local, national and international text-based artists and poets - lots of whom have become friends over the years of dialogue and exhibition (eating and drinking) together: angela rawlings, Barrie Tullett, Bob Grenier, Carolyn Thompson, Cecilie Bjørgås Jordheim, Darren Marsh, derek beaulieu, Emma Cocker, Eric Zboya, Erica Baum, Jaap Blonk, James Davies, Jayne Dyer, Jesse Glass, Karri Kokko, Kristen Mueller, Lawrence Weiner, Leanne Bridgewater, Liz Collini, Lucy Harvest Clarke, Marco Giovenale, Márton Koppány, Matt Dalby, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Paula Claire, Penny Anderson, Peter Jaeger, Phil Davenport, Rachel Defay-Liautard, Ron Silliman, Satu Kaikkonen, Sarah Sanders, Steve Miller, Seekers of Lice, Steve Emmerson, Steve Giasson, Tom Jenks, and Tony Lopez - more works than we had wall-space to display so there are various conceits that allow access to all the works. 

I was joking earlier - I am very grateful to everyone who sent something - there's some great things - I'll revisit and talk more about individual works in a later blog. 

Marton Koppany: "Concrete Poem - for Tony Trehy"

Past Pain

As the 20th anniversary of me working in Bury approaches, it was difficult to resist the urge to nostalgia (Greek: past pain): I recall the first exhibition I ever curated was Michael Sandle's etchings - I knew his work because we went to the same art school in the Isle of Man (separated by some years). 

Satisfyingly, though my next thought turned to what comes next? (John Peel used to say that it was next record that he wanted to hear not the one he'd just heard)




Over the last couple of days it's really felt like some exciting times to come: Riiko Sakkinen finding his concept for his show next year: The ABC of Capitalism; Hillary Jack finishing her new commission in Bury; Great Dutch sculptor, Auke de Vriers visiting to discuss his show next February and a big new public art commission; And there's the pop-up in the gallery pulled together by Phil Davenport and Derek Beaulieu - which I'll blog about shortly. 

Israel

1. homotopy equates to autoimmune disorder : 
to transform every figure into a Compendious Book on Guernica
by incidence and effects enshrine pernicious anemia around 

anthropic argument: verb sensitive to assumption reports 

exogenous acts of God – concurrent operations run their inquisition. 

All the texts submitted and accumulate authority to help 

run their Inquisition moving a negative quantity 
from one side of the equation to the other side with changing 
its commutation all the same. These so irretrievable. 
The overstaid fraction, so irretrievable, overstaid, auxetic, 

coloured by pungent ahistoricism; unsettling sonorities 

webbed over the other ideas report adverse events

deterred from becoming expert witnesses 
no human conjecture is involved, a physical transportation, 
curfewed 

to prove its own consistency to a basic telomere 

assumption, without realising inverse geometry penetrates 

both ways, blood poisoning on statistics, with fanatical 

odds, analogy admonition against misinterpretation, 

restoration and uncompensation. With significant outside 

support apostasy equals the pun of impenetrability 

according to looking at this dead baby. The underachiever 

anomaly applies even with the Name change where it is the final

word in law ... 0

Text Festival 2014 - opening weekend (part 2)

Sarah Sanders great "I used to" on the gallery stairs

 Liz Collini work in progress

 Steve Giasson

Ron Silliman, Rachel Defay-Liautard and Marton Koppany 

Text Festival 2014 - opening weekend (Part 1)

I think this may have been one of the strongest Festivals so far and a successful opening weekend - great people, great installations and performances. 

 Jayne Dyer's 'Blood Sport' with Carolyn Thompson's 'The Beast in Me' in the distance.

 Derek Beaulieu's Dante window

 Me chatting with Ron Silliman and Derek Beaulieu (Peter Jaeger and Eran Hadas in the background)

 Ron Sillliman participating in the drawing shed installation

 Some of the staff team - everyone has worked very hard.

 Works by Simon Patterson, Riiko Sakkinen and Rachel Smith

 View into the Dark Would installation

The night Barney met Sarah Walters' Tommy

 Penny Anderson's Travel Bag in the foreground

Polari Mission exhibition in Bury Museum

Bury Sculpture Centre Opens

Opening speeches from me, Cllr Sharon Briggs (Mayor of Bury) and Ian Tabbron (Arts Council of England) - and Greville Worthingon [out of shot](Yorkshire Sculpture Park).

Bury Art Museum and Bury Sculpture centre

Just two weeks off the opening of the Bury Sculpture Centre and the launch of the fourth international Text Festival. Pulling the forthcoming programmes together has been one of the toughest workloads I can remember for various reasons beyond my control; but I think it is a programme to celebrate: I'll  expand on the individual aspects as it gets closer to the day, but I'm pleased to list some really great people involved in the Text: Lawrence Weiner, Ron Silliman, Phil Davenport, Simon Patterson, Riiko Sakkinen, Jayne Dyer, Caroline Bergvall, Penny Anderson, Jaap Blonk, Derek Beaulieu, Sally Labern & Bobby Lloyd, Tim Etchells, Sarah Sanders, Carolyn Thompson, Marton Koppany, Vanessa Place, Jez Dolan & Joseph Richardson, Peter Jaeger, Liz Collini, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Maria Damon, Juxtavoices, Rhys Trimble, Debbie Walsh, Richard Barrett, Tom Jenks, Bobby Parker, Lucy Harvest Parker, Tim Allen, Steve Giasson, Andrea Cotton, Carol Watts & Will Montgomery, Eran Hadas, Jorg Piringer, Rachel Smith, Erica Baum, Flo Fflach, Holly Pester, Rachel Defay-Liautard (that was the order I could remember them in I've probably forgotten someone). 

Arriving at the same place at the same time

The Text Festival has had a relationship with Lawrence Weiner since the very first one in 2005. Back then we commissioned WATER MADE IT WET and acquired his Horizon work from its original location in Hull, which he reconfigured to become Radcliffe Horizon.In the Festival exhibitions programme, we supported the public art works with a survey show of Lawrence’s poster art works.

Burned out after the insanity of creating a Festival that was 9 months long( never make that mistake again!), in 2006, I took a sabbatical to write 50 Heads. Within which the poem ‘Sculpture’ was my personal creative response to Lawrence.


Sculpture

0. The object of making your opponent weep descriptions
between the upper and lower structures in vertebrates
forming the framework of the mouth, containing the teeth,
the parts of tool or machine. That body language material
with the tongue intropunitive instead of angry, anger our
faults are most obvious as nothing hides them breasts
move as sacks of liquid dynamic contents. The knife
fixation on things in evaluation, of sweat-scented straps
forward and back in the infantile world of ready-made
values, woman, the happy or resigned slave lives allowing
both misogyny and visionary context. Scattering
amplitude internationally is that difference in any given
place. Choice language to present material realities,
histories that I only deal with divergent objects and all
translatable to stand outside a less human presence more
profound for their human attachment to non-living things
and construction of bridges to be crossed as opposed too
catalogued: 1

Lawrence read 50 Heads on the plane to the Venice Biennale and sent me one of his famous postcards with the aphorism ARRIVING AT THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME. At some levels true, others not. 

So in 2009 in Basel, I wrote the poem “Arriving At The Same Place At the Time” which was published on Veer in “Space The Soldier Who Died For Perspective” 

In programming the 2014 Text Festival who else but Lawrence Weiner could open the new Bury Sculpture Centre? And ARRIVING AT THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME is part of the installation. I think one of the things that the Festival does is create a space where artists from many different fields come together, opening dialogues and possibilities for new ideas, new exchanges, new works. So I suppose I could end this blog by asking: what new possibilities will open up for you, if you arrive in Bury at the same time as the Text Festival? 

The Public Typing Pool

Bury Sculpture Centre work in progress

Probably been the most intense period of my career, preparing on the Text Festival, planning the programme for the rest of 2014 and on into 2015, more projects in the Far East, and of course getting the Sculpture Centre ready.

As we pared back the old uses and abuse of the space, the thick layers of carpet and paint, something really beautiful has emerged. The space is exhilarating and some of the uncovered and restored Victorian detail is fascinating. The floor is magnificent. We open on 2 May with the preview for the Text Festival. 

THE DARK WOULD: language art exhibition

7th December - 24th January at Summerhall , Edinburgh

Launch (open to public) 7pm, Friday 6th December, 2013

Venue: Summerhall, Edinburgh, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL

Entry: Free 

I'll be up in Edinburgh this Friday for the preview of the latest manifestation of Phil Davenport's "The Dark Would" Project. Significant poets and text artists involved in the two versions of the seminal anthology exhibiting works that cross the boundary of living and dying in The Dark Would: Fiona Banner, Richard Long, Simon Patterson, Susan Hiller, Sarah Sanders, Jenny Holzer, Richard Wentworth, Caroline Bergvall, Erica Baum, Ron Silliman and many others, including (perhaps with less significance) me. Unexpectedly Phil has included my small 2005 poetic homage to Blinky Palermo. Funnily enough when he mentioned his intention I had to take a moment to remember that I had done it but then again it was one of my first published pieces (with the kind support of Greville Worthington coming out as a limited edition).

The Dark Would uses notions of mortality to collapse old, dead categories (‘Conceptual Art’, ‘Concrete Poetry’, ‘Vispo’ etc.) repositioning artists alongside poets and outsiders, and freeing space for a new wave of practitioners. 

Summerhall and its Curator Paul Robertson are proud to host the world premiere ‘The Dark Would’ as part of its Winter Visual Arts Programme of this ground-breaking exhibition.

New work has been made especially for the show by Richard Wentworth and commissioned pieces include rorschach drawings by Mike Chavez-Dawson, made from the names of dead poets and live writing by Sarah Sanders. The Dark Would will also have 'answering' works by dead artists and poets including Stephane Mallarme, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Joseph Beuys, taken from Paul Robertson's Heart Fine Art collection which is based at Summerhall. For more information on Heart Fine Art: http://www.heartfineart.com

(Exhibition contributors: arthur+martha, Fiona Banner, Erica Baum, Caroline Bergvall, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Maria Chevska, Matt Dalby, Philip Davenport, Steve Emmerson, Alec Finlay, Rob Fitterman, Steve Giasson, Susan Hiller, Jenny Holzer, Marton Koppany, Laurence Lane, Richard Long, Tony Lopez, Darren Marsh, Simon Patterson, Tom Phillips, Sarah Sanders, Ron Silliman, Carolyn Thompson, Carol Watts, Lawrence Weiner and Richard Wentworth.)