Erasure.
Editing.
Separating the grain from the chaff.
The erasure as art?
As poetry?
Reminds me of Rauschenberg's "Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953"
Also inevitably of the
"undo" and "redo" buttons in Photoshop
and each of us faced with the monstrous task
of choosing
over and over and over again.
-Peter C.
ARTIST'S BLOG - http://invisiblenotes.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:34:31 -0800
Subject: Re: The Poem as a broken object reassembled:
> This is probably way off line, but it reminds me of those
interviews David
> Sylvester did with Francis Bacon, where Bacon speaks about his
slashing the
> canvas with paint and random "accidents" to prevent the painting from
> becoming mere "illustration". Something that stuck in my mind and
that has
> entered in some way my own practice of writing.
In actuality I suspect destruction (erasure) is at the "heart" and
power of
much writing & art. Combined with one's sense of being ravaged
(unacknowledged) - or that some aspect of one, or one's interior
'vision',
is so. The order (a new poem, painting) out of chaos - of destroying
the
rhetoric, the cliché - provides the 'creative' impulse. At least,
these
impulses seem to animate the the proces. And some innate trust that one
is
out to make something imaginatively worthwhile, healthy (not mere
'illustration') in the community.
Yet, it's a strange power. Evangelicals of many persuasions are fond of
notions of "creative destruction." If the US Government, or Israel, or
Iraq
or Iran, etc. could be destroyed, then we would have the Second Coming,
the
return of the Holiest Iman - beatific worlds for Muslims, Christians,
you
name it.
So sometime I think what's good for the making of art (as a process)
is
not the prescription for actually altering the world. Tho I am sure some
will say that Wars unhinge a countries dead parts and make possible the
infusion of technologies and new opportunities and relations among
people.
But I think particularly of so much poetry in the USA - well built,
sanctified, winning - is suffocating, boring, and only reaffirms and
refines
the familiar. It has such good manners and I am rarely drawn to read it.
Alternatively I am very grateful for all the wonderful renegades who run
their bulls through the poetry boutiques, keep their ears and eyes
close to
the ground, and make all these odd, wonderful musics to pierce the
ordinary
with new orders and visions of the ways of the world.
Of course, my own language here can, in itself, get ethereal, and not
convey
much of substance (the examples!).
Going back to the work of Cornelia Parker, sculptor, I suspect she is
doing
it. And, no Doug, I have yet to get down to see the actual work. Just
opened. I hope my anticipation will not have destroyed it!
Stephen V
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
>
> All the best
>
> A
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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