Friday, November 20, 2009

tame (2009)


Frequent the small places. Boycott of giants. Armadas of battleships unable to turn. How many m3 of grey? Crime scene cluster: bank, supermarket, exchange. Do not buy my child a gun.

Go bush. Firetraps on the fringes. Generalised iffiness. Loose network cables the cause? Distraction industries. The simian cornered. Optimal yield. Hoard apps, plugins. Planned waste, inbuilt obsolescence. Planet E: renovator’s dream. Foreclosure vultures. Revolving door policies.

Unplug these futures. Are we ‘headed’? Facer, tone up your voice. Read the insane. Artist seeks larger mirror. Caffeine for possibilities. Adjusting the gain. Eating
whatever falls from the sky. Insects fly through rain, never struck by a drop.


Below: Simian 40 virus (image by Phoebus87).


7 comments:

  1. This may seem an idiosyncratic response, but when I read a collage-like poem such as this, wherein the discrete, isolate fragments seem to underflow toward some nebular subtext, each fragment leaves an afterimage which is superimposed on the next fragment to create a strange double-exposure. "Distraction industry" juxtaposed with "The simian cornered" conjures up King Kong swatting the little airplanes bedeviling him; "Read the insane. Artist seeks larger mirror. Caffeine for possibilities" evokes a poet reading "outsider" poetry--or maybe Huidobro on the poetry of madmen--in a retro coffee shop with a large, baroque-framed mirror. Or snorting dark brown cocaine off a mirror!

    The Simian 40 virus: now there's a fleur du mal!

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  2. Hi, thanks for visiting. Glad you appreciate what I'm up to. :)

    I'll keep at it. I just wish I could read your blog. :(

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  3. David:

    "the discrete, isolate fragments seem to underflow toward some nebular subtext, each fragment leaves an afterimage which is superimposed on the next fragment to create a strange double-exposure"

    Yes! That's exactly what I'm trying to achieve.

    I love your examples of double-exposures. King Kong never entered my head, but I see how the image is there for the taking.

    I remember a party shooter called 'Russian cocaine' which involved vodka, ground coffee, lemon and sugar. It was akin to tequila with lemon and salt. I have a feeling we may've used a mirror for effect!

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  4. Really enjoyed this - lots of strong, lasting imagery - visual language juxtaposed with an image - great stuff.

    Perfect choice of image with which to complete the poem, too. Very effective.

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  5. Thanks, TF.

    I checked out Lead Igloo last night and liked what I found. I'll be checking back again.

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  6. I read all the comments before adding my 2 c.

    And I must now say: I have been influenced! I was all interpretive on a tangent... (sorry, I can't translate that),

    simian? It's an image that repels me, therefore I see us, me, the humans, as the simians. Simians with large mirrors.

    And then I have to separate my perfect self from the simians. So for me - don't give me a large mirror - give me thousands of small ones. How best to reflect the myriad of me and the infinite of you?

    Great piece... really grabbed me and pushed me to thinking, imagining, taking the journey.

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  7. "So for me - don't give me a large mirror - give me thousands of small ones."

    This sounds like the myth of Indra's net. A collection of reflections (perspectives) stretching to infinity.

    In the "artist seeks larger mirror" line I was probably thinking of artists such as Andreas Gursky and Chris Jordan, the 'vastness' of their work, the interplay of the macro and micro in it.

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