She could see ahead of her, way at the road’s end, the volcano named Fire. – Jane Bowles ‘A Guatemalan Idyll’, reprinted in South as a State of Mind No. 9 [documenta 14 #4] Fall/Winter 2017. Some books are bigger than others, especially in how they loom large in life, and at the intersection of […]
He turned, finally, to the book Moyra Davey published on the occasion of the artist’s exhibition for the 2018 Scotiabank Photography Award in 2018. It is the largest book by Davey he owns, like Index Cards an anthology of texts, but also a rich survey of the artist’s photographic and film work. While flicking through […]
You wrote back in March 2019 the following crescendo to a long (too long) post called Echo is Golden (Sharjah Biennial 14 Remix): When I left the ice-rink, Sharjah, the airport and returned home, I didn’t know how to keep my experience from fading into the air of routine, teaching and everyday life. I definitely […]
Sometimes a book sits on the shelf, looking at you, wondering when you will take the time to open it, and see what is inside, when you do, it is no surprise that there is something placed within its pages that is completely unexpected. Today it is the book Ibrahim Mahama, Exchange-Exchanger (1957-2057), edited by […]
Well, this is embarrassing. After several days of picture-heavy posts without hearing from me, today I need to have him write about what happened to him last night. It’s not pretty. But first, a reminder of who I am. I am the ghost of a library, specifically the library that was ‘killed’ by Richard Fletcher […]
The most remarkable element of this exhibition is a slim volume that could escape notice….[an] enticing little 104-page paperback in the museum….Like a pocket edition, Burn the Diaries is designed to be affordable and accessible….So where does the reading stop and her life begin? This question gets raised early in Burn the Diaries when Davey […]
Joan Naviyuk Kane In a way, the animal detaches itself from truth. I might lose myself amidst such strange propulsions. In a way, I am fooled into rooting for a cause, one that I clearly hate. There’s a hole here. – Joan Naviyuk Kane, ‘Another Bright Departure’ (Cut Bank Books: Missoula, 2019), p. 2. Alejandra […]
The woman making this film is writing on the subway… It was a brief encounter; she was meeting some of you for the first time. The day before you left, she turned on the camera without asking. She is fascinated by you, doesn’t want to be a voyeur, knows she is doing just that, eavesdropping […]
Words, they are slippery things. And don’t get me started on the sounds they make! (Wait, do words even make sounds? Or do sounds make words?). Phonetics or Phonology? Or both! Anyway, some sounds seem to appear out of nowhere when certain words are pronounced. Listen to that linking or intrusive ‘r’. (Hold Me Farst!). […]
