BOB COBBING ABC IN SOUND

On 8th October I went to the opening of Bob Cobbing: ABC in Sound, curated by William Cobbing and Rosie Cooper at the Exhibition Research Centre, Liverpool John Moores University. This is an exhibition about the whole career of the leading British concrete and sound poet, virtuoso performer, publisher, poetry activist, teacher and intermedia artist Bob Cobbing (1920-2002). The exhibition features recordings going back to the 1960s and 70s, lots of publications and printed works, framed artworks, and works by some of his collaborators such as Dom Sylvester Houedard, Henri Chopin, and his wife Jennifer Pike. There are also documents relating to his activities as an arts and poetry activist, and to his early career as a teacher. Apart from the sheer compression and brilliance of his best work (see above, read it aloud), Cobbing was an influential poet and artist who inspired a whole generation through his generous workshops, performances and work as a publisher. It was a pleasure to see this show and have the many aspects of Cobbing's career sampled and effectively shown together, some of the best visual works reprinted and shown in large format. A new film by artist Holly Antrum presents Jennifer Pike's dance performance work. This was my first visit to the Exhibitions Research Centre in the John Lennon Art and Design Building, next to the Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool. Thanks to Robert Sheppard and Patricia Farrell for their kind hospitality.
Image: 'wan, do, tree' from the Exhibition flyer, copyright (c) 1977 by Bob Cobbing, courtesy the Estate of Bob Cobbing.

BOOKBINDING WORKSHOP IN PLYMOUTH

I went to a great bookbinding workshop run by Tom O'Reilly at Plymouth College of Art on Thursday 31 October. This event was part of the Plymouth International Book Festival. I made two bound books from scratch in a day: one casebound in maroon bookcloth with marker, headbands, shiny endpapers and vellum laid pages, another a Coptic binding in blue and white. Tom O'Reilly the bookbinder is a great teacher -- everyone in the class made their own books. His own work is really various and interesting, lots of detailed embossed leather bindings, displayed on his website (see the Gallery) here. 

EDINBURGH EXHIBITION AT SUMMERHALL : THE DARK WOULD

       

ONE HOUR : A SIXTY MINUTE CIRCLE WALK ON DARTMOOR 1984 by Richard Long, courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery

from Black List -- Saul and Elaine Bass -- 2006 by Simon Patterson, courtesy of the artist

Arcadia, 2012 by Tony Lopez with Orchard Memorials, photo by John S. Webb

These three images are from a forthcoming exhibition in Edinburgh -- details in the announcement below -- my works will be shown 'in conversation' with Ian Hamilton Finlay works also on display. What a great idea to put on this ambitious exhibition Philip Davenport.

THE DARK WOULD 

Summerhall, Edinburgh 7 Dec - 24 Jan (Public preview 7pm, 6 Dec)

World-leading text artists and poets have been invited to make work about living and dying for The Dark Would exhibition, which includes work by Richard Long, Susan Hiller, Tom Phillips, Simon Patterson, Richard Wentworth, Tony Lopez, Caroline Bergvall, Erica Baum, Ron Silliman and many others, including ‘outsider’ artists. 

Whether homeless people or outsider artists or art stars - we all have to find our way through the dark. Challenging and uplifting, The Dark Would reads the human traces that we leave in the world. This is an extraordinary gathering that asks what it is to have a body and to lose it. As well as including work from the living, there will also be 'answering' works by dead artists and poets including Stephane Mallarme, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Joseph Beuys. 

Summerhall hosts the world premiere of this ground-breaking exhibition curated by poet Philip Davenport, before it travels elsewhere in Britain and abroad. The Dark Would exhibition is an ‘out-growth’ of the large anthology of text art and poetry edited by Davenport and published by Apple Pie Editions 2013.

There will be a series of artist's talks paralleling the exhibition.

Further information here: Summerhall

TEXT FESTIVALS NOW PUBLISHED

The Text Festivals: Language Art and Material Poetry, edited by Tony Lopez, is now published by University of Plymouth Press: ISBN 978-1-84102-359-5; 13 new essays, 164 pages including 16 colour plates, notes on contributors, and a catalogue of works shown.

CONTENTS
Preface
Tony Lopez, Introduction: Language Art and Material Poetry
Tony Trehy, Curating Text
derek beaulieu, The Value of Nothing
Christian Bok, The Xenotext
Carol Watts alphabetise // Different Alphabets and Damage Control
Philip Davenport, An Alphabet of Fishes: Curating Bob Cobbing
Colour Plates
James Davies, if p then q three and the Text Festival
Robert Grenier, Bury Memories (whilst yet living)
Alan Halsey, Memory Screen at Bury Met
Holly Pester, 'I did not know till afterwards': An Archive Artwork
Hester Reeve (HRH.the), But the Real Work Was to Place a Stone in my Mouth
Liz Collini, Versions
Carolyn Thompson, You're so Pretty when You are Unfaithful to Me
Contributors
Catalogue

Get the book from University of Plymouth Press here.

Cover art: Versions (detail) © 2009 by Liz Collini

THE TEXT FESTIVALS: LANGUAGE ART AND MATERIAL POETRY

The project that has kept me busy over the past few months is a book about the Text Festivals, curated by Tony Trehy at Bury Art Museum and other venues in the town in 2005, 2009 and 2011. The Text Festival has always been about presenting high quality Language Art from the very different traditions that it emerges. Artists' and poets' works have been displayed together in exemplary curated space with minimal explanation, allowing different approaches in language use to work on each other, making it possible for the viewer to experience an unusual cultural resonance and crossover. Works from Conceptual Art, Concrete Poetry, Artists' Books and Publishing, Fluxus, Outsider Art, Minimalism, Performance Art, Vispo, Language Poetry, Pataphysics, Poetry Video, Conceptual Writing, really anything made of text or performing text or associated sound works have been presented and shown.
     I read some commissioned work at the second festival in 2009 with Philip Davenport and Carol Watts. I met lots of people involved with the festival and related events in Manchester. Apart from working directly with Tony Trehy, I got to know Philip Davenport, Helmut Lemke, Kerry Morrison, Robert Grenier, Marianne Eigenheer, James Davies, Tom Jenks, Hester Reeve and others. I spent some time with Ron Silliman who was also on at the Met Arts Centre that evening and we were both put up at the same Manchester hotel. We had a good time at the festival and after the main events there was a workshop day for participants based I think on business development techniques. That was a strange experience like being new at school or going to a training 'awayday' when I used to be an academic -- but one thing that came out of it was the obvious need to mobilise our different skills to make space for our work in common. I was really struck by the urgent need to make progress on focused secondary work. I kept in touch with Manchester friends, especially Tony Trehy, and was involved in the third festival, this time showing some new work in the main exhibition. And later on Philip Davenport edited and published The Dark Would: Anthology of Language Art, a wonderful ground-breaking collection. I took part in the launch earlier this year with Philip, Caroline Bergvall and Simon Patterson at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. James Davies, Scott Thurston and Tom Jenks have been running The Other Room a series of free poetry performance events in Manchester for about five years. The associated website that they run is an important information hub for news of all kinds of cultural events in the Northwest and it helps to maintain online connections nationally and internationally.
     It seemed a worthwhile project to try and capture some of the huge range of activity involved in the Text Festivals in another form. I proposed editing a book that would gather contributions from artists involved in the festivals and also retrospectively catalogue exhibitions and events. I'm really delighted that the book was recognised right away by the editor and readers for University of Plymouth Press. It was a new area of research for me and an interesting challenge to write something about the quite separate fields of Language Art and Concrete Poetry as it happened in the UK since the 1960s. Tony Trehy and Philip Davenport have both written chapters about curating, and the other contributors have written about specific projects made for the Text Festivals. It's a valuable and unusual collection right away because of the range of contributors and what they each bring.
     This is the contents page but the order has since been changed to fit in the section of 16 colour plates in the middle of the book.

Preface

Tony Lopez, Introduction: Language Art and Material Poetry

Tony Trehy, Curating Text

derek beaulieu, The Value of Nothing

Christian Bok, The Xenotext

Liz Collini, Versions

Philip Davenport, An Alphabet of Fishes: Curating Bob Cobbing

James Davies, if p then q three and the Text Festival

Robert Grenier, Bury Memories (whilst yet living)

Alan Halsey, Memory Screen at Bury Met

Holly Pester, 'I did not know till afterwards': An Archive Artwork

Hester Reeve (HRH.the), But the Real Work Was to Place a Stone in My Mouth

Carolyn Thompson, You're so Pretty when You are Unfaithful to Me

Carol Watts, alphabetise // Different Alphabets and Damage Control

I was at the printers in Exeter recently to see proofs and the book looks really good. The design by Daniel Jones is excellent. The front cover (above) shows a detail of Liz Collini's wall drawing Versions. I'll post again when the book is available from the publishers University of Plymouth Press and all good booksellers.

Cover art: Versions (detail) © 2009 by Liz Collini

A GARDEN BY JOHN S. WEBB

John S. Webb's latest book A Garden, published by Nya Vyer, Stockholm, 2012
Photographs from Rorum, Osterlen, Sweden, 2012.
64 pages, 47 images, text by John S. Webb, also includes 'Apple Garden' a short essay by Tony Lopez written for this book.
Edition of 275 copies + 25 boxed special edition signed with print, hard cover clothbound.
21.5 x 15.5 cms.
Printed by Bulls Graphics/Standartu-Spaustyve, Lithuania.
ISBN 978-91-9806662-0-30
ISBN 978-91-9806662-1-0 boxed edition.
Available from webbphoto price 195 Svkr + 40 kr postage (Sweden).

MORE & MORE AT ARNOLFINI

Just heard that my animated text More & More has arrived on time and will be shown at the Arnolfini in Bristol for the Ian Hamilton Finlay Weekend Friday 30th August and Saturday 31 August 2013. The weekend is a special event for the Ian Hamilton Finlay Exhibition, that is currently showing at the Arnolfini, a really comprehensive show of Finlay's cards produced right through his career from 1963 to 2006. The weekend programme includes talks by Graham Rich, Stephen Bann, Harry Gilonis, OEI Magazine, film screenings of Beatrice Gibson, The Tiger's Mind, Ian Hamilton Finlay's Carrier Strike, films by Karl Holmqvist, and Kriwet, a concert by Amor de Dias, a DJ set by Christian Flamm, Sue Tomkins audio work, and a performance by Kasia Fudakowski. Works by Victoria Bean, Antonio Claudio Carvalho and my More & More are to be shown. There is a benefit auction Friday 30th August at 7.30pm to help to maintain Finlay's garden Little Sparta in Dunsyre Scotland. The auctioneer will be George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol. I went on an exhibition tour and talk by Stephen Bann last Saturday with Graham Rich and Lesley Kerman. It was great to hear about Finlay's print projects and his various disputes and campaigns. I really enjoyed the visit to the Finlay garden at St George's church in Bristol.
    This photo of More and More was taken at the Sentences exhibition in Bury Art Museum, 2011 by Jari Kuusenaho; the animation is by ranfirefly, technical development by Tom Lopez of Microserve Bristol. The work was also shown at Poetry for the Eye, TR1 Gallery, Tampere, Finland 2012, and at Visual Poetics, South Bank Centre, London, 2013.