> 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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