Thursday, August 25, 2011

Room Zx                            


George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely. Like we celebrated the chewing gums that everyone hated.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.




Graffitto Man

Some say I’m crazy – after a while it begins to bong. The caught us but I got a flick.

The rednecks were lost even though we made their day, but we are all lost.

After a while it begins to bong. I need to make things. We all need to make things. Make things. MAKE THINGS.

… an energy of conception which seems at any moment about to break through all the conditions…, a loveliness found usually in the simplest things –

with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her

with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her

George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely. Like we celebrated the chewing gums that everyone hated.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.



_____________________________________________________________________

                 "In a universe of ante-rooms...."     (Charles Bernstein)
_____________________________________________________________________




last,
terrible gasp.


                        the gigabitic silence
 
                        the analogic love

                        the long lonely road
 
                        the emotional steel truss

                        the rust of us

                       the elliptc who-ness




George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely. Like we celebrated the chewing gums that everyone hated.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.



_____________________________________________________________________

"In a universe of ante-rooms...."     (Charles Bernstein)
_____________________________________________________________________




Gilbert – All the exhibitions are chapters in a novel, and it all produces reality. We like the idea of total schizophrenia, don’t you think George? We don’t want to know what it means – we’re just doing it, and we don’t ask the question, “What does it mean?”

Gilbert – You see we don’t have to say what we think, we show the world as it is.

George – It has to do with the real…

Gilbert – Not with what we think…


  And the womb is responsible, it continues to
expel eyes, fascinated by the gaint crystals of the void.

  One was crazy about life, the other about death.

The mountains had long ago crumbled away,
Erased by some soft artillery on the radio.

..and a water snake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note.

          …..I was born of  rumors, a whisper in one
state, an insubstantial brawl in another.


_______________________________________________________



  And the womb is responsible, it continues to
expel eyes, fascinated by the gaint crystals of the void.

  One was crazy about life, the other about death.

George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely.




quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that


Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.

George – We have thousands of images to the project, literally thousands.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Collected over the past couple of years?

George – Probably three years, or maybe ten.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – So it’s a new archive, or a relatively new archive.

George – Yes.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would it be accurate to say that, with this archive, the tags become a new sort of writing?

George – Yes, they’re all on one list – there’s an enormous list of tags on the wall. Can you see them from here?

Gilbert – So many tags, it’s unbelievable – thousands and thousands.



Old brown tortured face
hair white.
Mouth open,
in last,
terrible gasp.




Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1945. After attendingSyracuse University, the School of Visual Arts, and studying art and design with Diane Arbus at Parson’s School of Design in New York, Kruger obtained a design job at Condé Nast Publications. Working forMademoiselle Magazine, she was quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. In their trademark black letters against a slash of red background, some of her instantly recognizable slogans read “I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground." Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing. As well as appearing in museums and galleries worldwide, Kruger’s work has appeared on billboards, buscards, posters, a public park, a train station platform in Strasbourg, France, and in other public commissions. She has taught at the California Institute of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in New York and Los Angeles.


_____________________________________________________________________

                 "In a universe of ante-rooms...."     (Charles Bernstein)
_____________________________________________________________________

  And the womb is responsible, it continues to
expel eyes, fascinated by the gaint crystals of the void.

  One was crazy about life, the other about death.


Critics of Michelangelo have sometimes spoke as if the only characteristics of his genius were a wonderful strength, varying, … , on what is singular or strange. A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art; that is they shall excite and surprise us is indispensable…but that…and this strangeness must be sweet also, a lovely strangeness…

… an energy of conception which seems at any moment about to break through all the conditions…, a loveliness found usually in the simplest things –
George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely. Like we celebrated the chewing gums that everyone hated.

The mountains had long ago crumbled away,
Erased by some soft artillery on the radio.

..and a water snake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note.

          …..I was born of  rumors, a whisper in one
state, an insubstantial brawl in another.


  And the womb is responsible, it continues to
expel eyes, fascinated by the gaint crystals of the void.

  One was crazy about life, the other about death.



        “Play seems central to the investigation.” (Michelle Leggott on my diary work in1992 in American Poetry (stage three).

Yes. I agree (nearly 20 years later!) And what I missed was the humour in the work of many of the language poets. (Bernstein and Silliman. Of course Andrews.) But there also seems to be a corresponding over seriousness about certain “sacred” subjects”. A lot of the philosophy associated is very difficult and still leaves me baffled. But I learned a lot in that course.
And my encounter and study of language writing in 1992 was invaluable for my own work.                 


                        the gigabitic silence
 
                        the analogic love

                        the long lonely road
 
                        the emotional steel truss

                        the rust of us

                        the elliptc who-ness

                        the “what” of  what we were or are

                        the who of who are we to say things

                                                        something screams

                                               and
   
                     others flit through the glades –

                     in the immortal classics and their fragments
                     we have so much hope

                     - no one can argue there seems

                     a sense of urgency

                     we all die so much


George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely. Like we celebrated the chewing gums that everyone hated.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.

George – We have thousands of images to the project, literally thousands.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Collected over the past couple of years?

George – Probably three years, or maybe ten.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – So it’s a new archive, or a relatively new archive.

George – Yes.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would it be accurate to say that, with this archive, the tags become a new sort of writing?

George – Yes, they’re all on one list – there’s an enormous list of tags on the wall. Can you see them from here?

Gilbert – So many tags, it’s unbelievable – thousands and thousands.

Hans Ulrich Obrist All these exhibitions are like chapters in a novel.

Gilbert – All the exhibitions are chapters in a novel, and it all produces reality. We like the idea of total schizophrenia, don’t you think George? We don’t want to know what it means – we’re just doing it, and we don’t ask the question, “What does it mean?”

Gilbert – You see we don’t have to say what we think, we show the world as it is.
----------------------------------------------------------------



George – It has to do with the real…

Gilbert – Not with what we think…

background in design is evident


Let us sing of Death –

Kamate kamate
Kaora kaora
Death life death life
Death death death
Life life life –
Life sprouts from the soil of death,
Kamate kamate ka ora ka ora
See the women sway as if in a ballet
In the dance of life -
Entranced their eyes

The dance of life, the dance of death,
Dance dance dance to life.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.

George – We have thousands of images to the project, literally thousands.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Collected over the past couple of years?

George – Probably three years, or maybe ten.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – So it’s a new archive, or a relatively new archive.

George – Yes.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would it be accurate to say that, with this archive, the tags become a new sort of writing?

George – Yes, they’re all on one list – there’s an enormous list of tags on the wall. Can you see them from here?

Gilbert – So many tags, it’s unbelievable – thousands and thousands.

                       
                        the gigabitic silence
 
                        the analogic love

                        the long lonely road

..and a water snake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note.


_____________________________________________________________________

                 "In a universe of ante-rooms...."     (Charles Bernstein)
_____________________________________________________________________

…mortal happiness should never be attributed to a man until we have seen him perform the last act of his drama, which will certainly be the most difficult.  All the others allow
of some disguise; our fine philosophical speeches may only be an outward show. Or we may be so hard pressed by our misfortunes as not to be able to keep our features composed. But in this last scene between ourselves and death there is no defence.

we don’t have to say what we think, we show the world as it is.

The mountains had long ago crumbled away,
Erased by some soft artillery on the radio.

..and a water snake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note.

          …..I was born of  rumors, a whisper in one
state, an insubstantial brawl in another.

First of all the physical memories, the sounds, the smells, and the surfaces of things.
_____________________________________________

Some say I’m crazy                  BONG
___________________________________________________________________



OFF SEASON by Charles Bernstein


The numerous
                                                         psyche, the curtains
             glowing elegantly in the wind, fromage



In ‘Off Season’ this is or seems to be Bernstein’s technique. We step through various rooms of meaning.
______________________________________________________________________________

                             smells of human origin


Never let this changelessness dream the passing hour.

                      this wild laughter these cries

the fractive faculty

….and the clowns, for all he their gaiety, are never far removed from tears…
Pierot is for Laforgue a vehicle for the inner dialogue of a man of feeling…by fixing attention on the nature of death…with psychological sureness, goes to the substratum of the psyche…

Dear Ratepayer

Our records show that during the last rating year a        was granted     property    
   application form and a re-useable envelope

A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art; that is they shall excite and surprise us is indispensable…but that…and this strangeness must be sweet also, a lovely strangeness…

Graffitto Man

Some say I’m crazy – after a while it all begins to Bong. The caught us but I got a flick.

The rednecks were lost even though we made their day, but we are all lost.

After a while it begins to Bong. Yes, BONG. Bong bong bong. I need to make things. We all need to make things. Make things. MAKE THINGS.


quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that


seems to be Bernstein’s technique. We step through various rooms of meaning. But words and phrases are used for their own effect despite the connections or motifs that might occur
  
(Let us write to one another….)


Old brown tortured face
hair white.
Mouth open,
in last,
terrible gasp.

..and a water snake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note.

_____________________________________________________________________

                 "In a universe of ante-rooms...."     (Charles Bernstein)
_____________________________________________________________________

A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art; that is they shall excite and surprise us is indispensable…but that…and this strangeness must be sweet also, a lovely strangeness…

................................................................................................................................................

OFF SEASON by Charles Bernstein


The numerous
                                                         psyche, the curtains
             glowing elegantly in the wind, fromage
...................................................................................................................................................

background in design is evident


…mortal happiness should never be attributed to a man until we have seen him perform the last act of his drama, which will certainly be the most difficult.  All the others allow
of some disguise; our fine philosophical speeches may only be an outward show. Or we may be so hard pressed by our misfortunes as not to be able to keep our features composed. But in this last scene between ourselves and death there is no defence.




                                                                                      various rooms of meaning

Kamate kamate
Kaora kaora
Death life death life
Death death death
Life life life –
Life sprouts from the soil of death,
Kamate kamate ka ora ka ora
See the women sway as if in a ballet
In the dance of life -
Entranced their eyes

The dance of life, the dance of death,
Dance dance dance to life.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible archive of tags.

George – We have thousands of images to the project, literally thousands.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Collected over the past couple of years?

George – Probably three years, or maybe ten.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – So it’s a new archive, or a relatively new archive.

George – Yes.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would it be accurate to say that, with this archive, the tags become a new sort of writing?

George – Yes, they’re all on one list – there’s an enormous list of tags on the wall. Can you see them from here?

Gilbert – So many tags, it’s unbelievable – thousands and thousands.

we don’t have to say what we think, we show the world as it is.

  And the womb is responsible, it continues to
expel eyes, fascinated by the gaint crystals of the void.

  One was crazy about life, the other about death.


“I am sitting I a room, different from the one you are in now…
“I am sitting In a room, different from the one you are in now…
“I am siitting In a  aroom, differentt from the e one you are inn now…
“I am Ssitting In aa rooom, difffeerent frrom thee onne youu arre in noow…
“I am SsittinSttingg In aRooma rooDiffom, difffrrffe onneerent frrom theYou ae Inon Nowne yoUuu arARrre in Nonoow “I am siitting In a  aroom, differentt from the e one you are inn now…
“I am SsittiSttInng In RoaMMaa roOOom, difFFffeerNTent frrRRom theEEe onNNne youu arre in noow…
“I am SsittinSttingGg In aRoomRa rooDiffom, difFFFffrrffe oNNNNNOnneeRRRrenTt frrom theYou ae Inon Nowne yoUuu arAAARrreiiin in NNNNNonooNowwWWw
“I am sitting I a room, different from the one you are in now…
“I am sitting In a room, different from the one you are in now…
“I am siitting In a  aroom, differentt from the e one you are inn now…
“I am Ssitting In aa rooom, difffeerent frrom thee onne youu arre in noow…
“I am SsittinSttingg In aRooma rooDiffom, difffrrffe onneerent frrom theYou ae Inon Nowne yoUuu arARrre in Nonoow “I am siitting In a  aroom, differentt from the e one you are inn now…Diffffereernt Frommethw oneennne youareer Inn nannonwwnSiiirrttin ggggGGINNNNa a a RRRAOOONNNMMMMMMM
“I am SsittiSttInng In RoaMMaa roOOom, difFFffeerNTent frrRRom theEEe onNNne youu arre in noow…
“I am SsittinSttingGg In aRoomRa rooDiffom, difFFFffrrffe oNNNNNOnneeRRRrenTt frrom theYou ae Inon Nowne yoUuu arAAARrreiiin in NNNNNonooNowwWWw
“I am SsittinSttingg In aRooma rooDiffom, difffrrffe onneerent frrom theYou ae Inon Nowne yoUuu arARrre in Nonoow “I am siitting In a  aroom, differentt from the e one you are inn now…Diffffereernt Frommethw oneennne youareer Inn nannonwwnSiiirrttin ggggGGINNNNa a a RRRAOOONNNMMMMMMM
“I am SsittiSttInng In RoaMMaa roOOom, difFFffeerNTent frrRRom theEEe onNNne youu arre in noow…NNAOOQQRRRRRRQQTSTSTINNGGGGGQINNNNAAANQINQNQNNQNROWROONANNANNNMMMMONOOOYYYYYDDDDYQQQQYYYEERRRRRRRAARRAAAAANOQOONNNNNQOQOOOQQQQWWWWWOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRPPOOOOOSSSSOOOTTTTTONMNIIIIINNNNGGGGGNNANANANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNN   OOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSRRRRRRRRRIAIAIAIAIAIAMMAMMAMMAMAMMMMMMMAMAMAMAMAMAMMMMMMMMWWWWWWWAWAWAAAOOOOONNNNONMMMMMMMMMMMAMAMBABABABABBABBBBBBWOOOWMWMMMMWOOWOOMBWBBBBWWOOOOOOOMBWWOOOOOOOOOOOMBWWWOOOWMMMMMSIIIIEIIEIETETEIIIIIIIIIITTETTIIIIIITTTIAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNGGSGGGGGGGGGWWWWWOOOOOWWMMMAAAAAANNNNMMMMMIIIIOOOOOMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBWBBBBBBWBWBWBWBWBWWOWOWMWBWBOWBOBWOBWOBWOBOWBOWBOOAQBWOAOOABOWBOABWOBWWIWIIQWIOQIOUUUWIPASFHAPSODIUIOVNUEHIHFIEIOHIOIASDFHIUHOIEUYUWIYEROIUYOIDFOISDKASJKDFHFOIWEUHGODFERBNAUHGNGUIHFHRUHRHIOAOAOQBNANCNNHGHGHGHHSDHUSHIAOPFHHFONNVLOXVUPAUOFIIHUVUVVERIOPIODOZSUKFFVNOOIGNISGNOPSFNGOJNDJFNURURURUVGNOSDFNGHGHHGH89374923709230497898T7AF98FY978R98F72807TH0394-T98GQ-98Q34-TUsttannng-30Gi9nnHJPa0aWEaIGJrU0-o 2U-oo8U0-,mmmmE89UT0-Q348=85=U889-)0-0-9ija[doiogjpoaijpq3tr89r-diff..ouou34arurereggpfsjdainnnnnfogjnposowwwidfjgwwwopnisdfogjopN nt9hnhwnnhnprijpoertij[[PIJSOO[DPFOGSOPJGOIERJOWEIJOIJOIEJWEWWWWWROIJWETIOJEPIJSFDKLGJ;LSDKJGOPQWIT0PUQE90R8TU-390Tnoow…NNAOOQQRRRRRRQQTSTSTINNGGGGGQINNNNAAANQINQNQNNQNROWROONANNANNNMMMMONOOOYYYYYDDDDYQQQQYYYEERRRRRRRAARRAAAAANOQOONNNNNQOQOOOQQQQWWWWWOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRPPOOOOOSSSSOOOTTTTTONMNIIIIINNNNGGGGGNNANANANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNN   OOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSRRRRRRRRRIAIAIAIAIAIAMMAMMAMMAMAMMMMMMMAMAMAMAMAMAMMMMMMMMWWWWWWWAWAWAAAOOOOONNNNONMMMMMMMMMMMAMAMBABABABABBABBBBBBWOOOWMWMMMMWOOWOOMBWBBBBWWOOOOOOOMBWWOOOOOOOOOOOMBWWWOOOWMMMMMSIIIIEIIEIETETEIIIIIIIIIITTETTIIIIIITTTIAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNGGSGGGGGGGGGWWWWWOOOOOWWMMMAAAAAANNNNMMMMMIIIIOOOOOMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBWBBBBBBWBWBWBWBWBWWOWOWMWBWBOWBOBWOBWOBWOBOWBOWBOOAQBWOAOOABOWBOABWOBWWIWIIQWIOQIOUUUWIPASFHAPSODIUIOVNUEHIHFIEIOHIOIASDFHIUHOIEUYUWIYEROIUYOIDFOISDKASJKDFHFOIWEUHGODFERBNAUHGNGUIHFHRUHRHIOAOAOQBNANCNNHGHGHGHHSDHUSHIAOPFHHFONNVLOXVUPAUOFIIHUVUVVERIOPIODOZSUKFFVNOOIGNISGNOPSFNGOJNDJFNURURURUVGNOSDFNGHGHHGH89374923709230497898T7AF98FY978R98F72807TH0394-T98GQ-98Q34-TIU-3A0G9MMMHJPSSS0WEIIGJU0-TTTGGGGGG2U-8U0-E89INNAAAAROOOOOOBBBBBBBOOOMMUT0-Q348=85=U889-)0-0-9ija[POIUOUPOIFRFUOIUAAUPNCCCTTJLKUPYSNUNPHYASSSAAININININUUBUYUVVVVVVAVAVIAIAIAIAIAIAAAMMMMMAAMMAMAAMAMAMAMAAAAMMMMMMdoiogjpoaijpq3tr89r-MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMSYYTTTTTTGGGGQUWYTRUYT34ruIIIggNNNNpfsjdfAAFACTAAAogjposidfjgopisdfgjopnt9hnhwnnhnprijpoertij[[PIJS[DPFOGSOPJGOIERJOWEIJOIJOIEJWROIJWETIOJEPIJSFDKLGJ;LSDKJGOPQWIT0PUQE90R8TU-PYSHHSYHSSICALLLLINNNFFFFAAN390TSSSSCCCCTTTSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTAAATTTTTTEXCEPTFFFFFMMMMAYBWEEEEEEERRRRRRRYYYYYYYTHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTGGGGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
RRRRRRRRRRRRYYYPHYSIDDDIIIFRRRAAAPPPPOOOMMMYYYYMAYYYBBBBYYYYTTTXXXXXTTTTTTTTTTTYEXEYYYYMMEXCCCEPTTMMMMMRRREYYYYYYYTHHHHMMMMMMM

..and a water snake uncurled from a rock at the far bank and glided down the slight current, no more demonstrative of effort or motion than a flute note.

________________________________________________________________________

A WORD OF WARNING – I think there is real danger, coincident with the beauty and importance of, certain kinds of abstract or formalized thinking: of the over use of such kinds of writing or saying such that (just as in political propoganda etc) we cca forget the how of such things. And indeed we start or can start to forget that we are human. (But now one should feel guilty for difficult or seemingly “careless” writing or thought or even words spoken, as, as my friend Scott Hamilton pointed out to me, aspects of  “language games” (via Wittgenstein, but one doesn’t need to know any philosophy to get to these ideas)) Bernstein and others of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetics (he is not a big fan of them but I recognize the huge importance culturally and even potentially subversively of what they we at least attempting to do in the 70s 80s and later, and their practice and the significance of the continuing struggle of them and those who have learnt from or have taken interest in various aspects of  that writing project, without necessarily embracing all of the terminology, such assertions as (Bernstein) [the individual is] “the product of a discourse” is difficult for many (including myself) to fixate…BUT this aside the act of thinking and perusing what poetry or art is and why we write is ultimately connected to deeper metaphysical ideas and even scientific conceptions. These collide maybe with postmodernism (but that area of thought is huge).

But such complex and even frightening terminology etc shouldn’t let us feel guilty of such “play” or even of our erudition (which cis really only a fact or of time, I am not talking about Ezra Pound’s and even Yeat’s (too? Can anything be too?) complex “world” (and yet despite the obscurity and often complete stupidity and wrongness of) of Pounds; “mythology” [e.g his over [over?.. Perhaps not…] obsession with the Eluesinian mysteries [and lets face it, his support of anti-Semitism and fascism] and Yeat’s cosmology [again he and Pound are fascinated also by almost Nazistical eugenics]  you can read part of both writers works where there are lines of almost agonising simplicity, toughness, humanity and depth.

I say all this because of the terrible personal events that can occur in our lives. For these, no one is guilty. Being “too intellectual” is only problematic in a personality too distant, or too un-empathic. A labourer or a professor can both make great fathers or mothers. [I’m talking around what I want to say “out loud” but it is too sad and difficult for me and would be insensitive… but here is clue…read Paul Auster’s ‘Sunset Park”). But there is no, no need for any guilt. [Sure there are dangers and Yeats refers to them in his own poetry (but he himself cannot quite lift from his artifice, but the struggle is there]:

Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
 
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
     
[With love, expressed love, with doing whatever we can in life, that is enough. But there are dangers. Bernstein himself writes in  his book A Poetics of  Pound and his entry is called [ “Pounding Fascism” (wit and wry humour are major elements in Bernstein’s work, and this, far from being a total repudiation of Pound, is complex, Pound is paradoxically moving awya from monologue and into a multiverse of new ideas and languages etc, a almost proto postmodernist mix, but his poetics, his overall them, tragically embraces the patriarchal, the old, the decaying, the hopeless, the worst in us… ad yet there are great gems to be found in his work… despite or because of his lodgement in the “canon” and his expressed hate of democracy and even of people…]


OFF SEASON by Charles Bernstein


The numerous
                                                         psyche, the curtains
             glowing elegantly in the wind, fromage



In ‘Off Season’ this is or seems to be Bernstein’s technique. We step through various rooms of meaning. But words and phrases are used for their own effect despite the connections or motifs that might occur through the poem. The very last line

                                                                            “which at this very moment”

suggests that the  phrase                               “A resplendent regression”
(and again the alliteration, and the [effect of the]  “pl” coupled with or against the “gr”,
and the “edent” versus or with the “e ession” ) is to  


George – We also love to use tags because we realize that the central government and the local governments are opposed to tagging. There’s an enormous campaign: the London Underground and British Rail are all campaigning against tagging.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – Would you say that you celebrate the taggers?

George – It’s nice to celebrate the taggers because they are sweet individual people with human problems the same as us, you know

Gilbert -Absolutely. Like we celebrated the chewing gums that everyone hated.

Hans Ulrich Obrist – You have an incredible....

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 Graffitto MANN

Some say I’m crazy – but after a while it all begins to Bong.
 
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A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art; that is they shall excite and surprise us is indispensable…but that…and this strangeness must be sweet also, a lovely strangeness…

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Voices:            


               with spiritual certainty,
               mathematical flowers, delicate
               yet tough, in sweet logical
               spirits, these voices, ghostly
               as truth, or God beyond any
               possible knowledge of Great Being, or
               any golden unfolding

The Violins:

               Bright and burnished far too bold these resinous violins,
               these convoluted lips, this revolving sweetness, too human
               or too rational in a near-joyous brashness in their brave
               and lusty
               attempt to define; they could grow into Beethoven’s 
               thumps, thunder, or
               other unseemly celebration of ‘human things’ and the
               progressive sonata forms               
               this “New aggressive humanity – a world for young men,
               a world…”.
           
               Cuts the shapes, moves to command the ‘real’, and aches
               for what the voices
               seem to know, but serenades them.  They wait.
               There is yet a suspended mutuality, perhaps the
               ghost-hands reach out
               from each to each.  Perhaps.


The Voices:

    Severe yet soft as gracious beards
they eternally sing. They are beneath
in a graciousness beyond or near grace.
The voices have breath. Of course they
are glad for the ‘masculine’ statements
of the violins and the strength and sweetness
of their pistils shall be glad and erect to the
powerful anthers. But, being chaste enough, they
hallelujah the Eternal in such gentle tones that the Poor
Invisible Hand almost gets annoyed and now writes in
huge looping Numbers, tortuously describing where
Dante’s Hell was (!) – so naughty!! - in a sadly happy ecstasy –
But soon Newman is ‘distilled’ like the spiritual whisky,
aqua vitae, ha!, but They are above the clouds
of desire in unknown yet tabulated spheres:
deliberately they worship The Eternal and The Rose
(e’en if indeed the Naughty Violinos do call out with
Stevensonian  Ice Cream Ho Hos! ); for The Voices know there is
no meaning to be found from the bad and virile Violin Investigators.      
     The Voices continue in perfect Numbers, in slow ecstasy, knowing.
All is in the circumscription, for the blood of Jésu is transcribed, bread is breath
And salvation is numerically certain. Ratios pour perfectly upward as

immortal drops of gold, and

                                    the Huge Head is surely God correct.



The Voices and Violins stop:

        Suddenly a hush



Voices and Violins:

    The violins and the voices blend in a new union.
What is happening to us is not a Question they will ask. They know
in a Spiral Certainty (in a way that is Beyond YOUR knowing);
for the great sounds and circles renew so perfectly

            So sweetly
, and the slide curves, curving                 and These High tones or “sings” ;

these God-filled spaces, and the Mystery, now so glowing, so softly rapturous as a child’s face, as Mutability is denied

                by Eternal Song and Eternal Ratio (the antinomies, giggling, run away to play);

whereat again the skip of the violins is brought to bear in the Interstices, as the blackness now is touched with rouge, as if the Fire had grown sight, and then, and then,
a High Voice, almost BEYOND God Itself –for it cries the terrible, nay the Endlessly Wonderful  mathematical convolutions, the smooth Bach, the curvature so exact and designed, so There-Before-Us, so God-column and Mary Ellipsoidal, so calculated into
the log of  2 or the insane yet Real √2 , or what wonder we can never know – only an endless tunnel of flames who love you and Love and The Great God believed in so gently
the soft, the strong, the great the immortal clasp –

 the Lover, the Impossible, the Great Being