THE DARK WOULD

THE DARK WOULD language art anthology

Cover image by Marton Koppany


Edited by Philip Davenport
This is a moment in time when poets and many artists share the same primary material: language. Conceptual art, vispo, text art, outsider art, conceptual poetry, flarf, concrete poetry, live art, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, sound scores… THE DARK WOULD is a compelling document of now, alchemising text into art into text.
THE DARK WOULD gathers work by over 100 contributors including some of the most noted artists and poets alive today.
THE DARK WOULD comes in two volumes, one paper and one virtual, sold both together for £29.99, published by Apple Pie Editions. The book retails at £29.99 for both paper and electronic volumes together and is available from Amazon, Apple Pie Editions website (distributed by KFS) the Tate and LMAKprojects in New York.
Support the independent publisher, get it from direct from Knives Forks and Spoons Press.

Contributors include:

Jerry Rothenberg, Rosemarie Waldrop, Tom Phillips, Nja Mahdaoui, Tom Raworth, Paula Claire, Susan Hiller, Robert Grenier, Ed Baker, Lawrence Weiner, John M Bennett, Kay Rosen, Allen Fisher, Richard Long, Ron Siliman, Richard Wentworth, Kevin Austin, Maria Chevska, Alan Halsey, Ken Edwards, Mike Basinski, Tony Lopez, Charles Bernstein, Jenny Holzer, Hainer Wörmann, Fiona Templeton, Maggie O’Sullivan, Geraldine Monk, Márton Koppány, David Annwn, John Plowman, Jesse Glass, Jurgen Olbrich, Liz Collini, Robert Sheppard, Patricia Farrell, Fernando Aguiar, Shirin Neshat, Penelope Umbrico, Gregory Vincent St Thomasino, Steve Waling, Rob Fitterman, Michalis Pichler, David Austen, Keiichi Nakamura, Shaun Pickard, Geof Huth, Tony Trehy, Wayne Clements, Peter Jaeger, Elena Rivera, Kenny Goldsmith, Harald Stoffers, Erica Baum, Nick Blinko, Philip Terry, Caroline Bergvall, Carol Watts, George Widener, Philip Davenport, Nico Vassilakis, Monica Biagioli, Tacita Dean, Jeff Hilson, Alec Finlay, Christian Bok, Fiona Banner, Nigel Wood, Satu Kaikkonen, Simon Patterson, Dave Griffiths, Nayda Collazo Llorens, Vanessa Place, Peter Manson, Andrew Nightingale, Matt Dalby, Steve Miller, Christoph Illing, Sean Burn, Doug Fishbone, arthur+martha, Hung Keung, the gingerbread tree, Brian Reed, Laurence Lane, Tomomo Adachi , Tom Jenks, David Oprava, Scott Thurston, Julian Montague, Derek Beaulieu, Wang Jun, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Alec Newman, Rick Myers, Andrea Brady, Eric Maximillian Zboya, Linus Slug, Jeff Grant, Richard Barrett, Christopher Fox, Linus Raudsepp, Carolyn Thompson, Tsang Kin-Wah, Stephen Emmerson, Andrew Topel, Anatol Knotek, Ola Stahl, Roman Pyrih, Christine Wong Yap, Sarah Sanders, Ying Kwok, Catherine Street, Michael Leong, Sam Winston, Angela Rawlings, James Davies, Rachel Lois Clapham, Steve Giasson, Amelia Crouch, Aysegul Torzeren, Jeremy Balius, Emily Crichley, Amaranth Borsuk, Ben Gwilliam , Imri Sandstrom, Sam le Witt, Michael Nardone, Tamarin Norwood, Lucy Harvest Clark, Jessica Pujol Duran, Holly Pester, Rebecca Cremin, Ryan Ormonde, Nick Thurston, j/j hastain, Bruno Neiva, SJ Fowler, Alex Davies, Helen Hajnoczky, Samantha Y Huang, Anna frew, Nat Raha, Jo Langton, Ekaterina Samigulina, Emma King, Leanne Bridgewater, Quentin Lannes and more.

READING FOR VISUAL POETICS

I was in London March 20th for the private view of Visual Poetics at the Poetry Library in the South Bank, I met Paula Claire, whom I'd seen on film at The Other Room in Manchester when I read there last year. Also Liliane Lijn who is known especially for her revolving poetry machines: I featured a photo of one of them in my review of the ICA show Poor Old Tired Horse in a much older blog post. Liliane Lijn was set up with a table and chairs to play her poetry game with a set of word cards. A group of participants were dealt a hand of cards and then took turns to add a word card to a text developing on the table. This was something like fridge magnet poetry and the vocabulary was generic poetry words.
     There was a reading by exhibition participants, including: Victoria Bean, Wayne Clements, Paula Claire, Stephen Emerson, John Gibbens, Giles Goodland, John Hall, Alan Halsey, James Harvey (read by Matt Martin), Sophie Herxheimer, Gad Hollander, Julie Johnson, Sarah Kelly, Liliane Lijn, Tony Lopez, Matt Martin, and Gavin Selerie. I particularly enjoyed Paula Claire's audience participation performance of 'Gun Law'; Giles Goodland's witty prose poem made of phrases including 'hand' and words that sound like hand; John Hall's reading from Interscriptions, his very fine collaborative Word and Image book with Peter Hughes; Alan Halsey's fully theatrical persona reading from his White Writing through a magnifying glass, doubtfully repeating the words and word fragments, turning the page around to follow the indistinct and partly erased text; Matt Martin's hilarious poem made of just acronyms. It was a great set of readings. I'm hoping to hear the recordings made by The Poetry Library soon. THANKS to the curators Chris McCabe and David Miller and all the staff at the Poetry Library for making the event go so well.
     It was my first sight of Visual Poetics, apart from photos, really good to see it. Apart from the wall display and screens, there was a lot of work that had been gathered and shown in display cases and relevant material from the main collection was also put out. There is a review of the exhibition in One Stop Arts here. Thanks to Lucy Lopez for the photos.

VISUAL POETICS AT THE POETRY LIBRARY

Visual Poetics is an exhibition currently on show at the Poetry Library in the Southbank Centre, curated by David Miller and Chris McCabe. It runs from 12th February to 14 April 2013. Poets and artists whose work is displayed include: John Furnival, Liliane Lijn, John Hall, Sarah Kelly, Hansjorg Mayer, Dom Sylvester Houedard, Thomas A. Clark, Laurie Clark, Paula Claire, Bob Cobbing, Karen Bleitz, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sophie Herxheimer, Tony Lopez, Victoria Bean, Gavin Selerie, Caroline Bergvall, Alan Halsey, David Miller, Julie Johnstone, James Harvey, Simon Cutts, Giles Goodland, Sam Winston, Gad Hollander, John Gibbens, Edwin Morgan, Stephen Emmerson, Matt Martin, Rick Myers, Antonio Claudio Carvalho and Wayne Clements.
    The Saison Poetry Library is located on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 8pm: FREE ENTRY.
    My text animation work 'More and More' is included, on loan from Bury Art Museum.