Q.E.D. – Part 3: An evening of Authentic Objects
The MAK Center Schindler House, Los Angeles
13 June 2012
Context Note: In April, May, and June of this year, Les Figues Press hosted a short series of long conversations on queer art and literature. Titled Q.E.D., in honor of Gertrude Stein’s novel by the same name (and one of the earliest coming-out stories), each Q.E.D. event explored the constructions of speech, art, literature, materiality, and sex. The conversations were moderated by Vanessa Place at the historic MAK-Schindler House, L.A.’s original nod to green architecture.
Q.E.D. Part Three featured Dodie Bellamy, Julie Bamber, and Terry Castle.
***
An evening of Authentic Objects: Julie Bamber, Dodie Bellamy and Terry Castle in conversation.
In the third installment of Les Figues Press’ Q.E.D. Series, moderated by Vanessa Place, the initial questions were, “Does an object need a form? Does an objection? Does anything speak for itself?” Artist Julie Bamber, writer Dodie Bellamy and critic (and writer and artist) Terry Castle assembled in the MAK Schindler House in West Hollywood to discuss questions of object-hood before an excited audience.
Patrons gathered, drank Pellegrino and looked at programs. Grapes and cookies sat on a table on the lawn. The copper of the fireplace was bright, next to the concrete walls of the house, with low beams suspended with small lights. A sliding door opened the wall. Afternoon light slanted across the concrete floor, grey.
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July 6th, 2012 / 12:00 pm
July 6th, 2012 / 12:00 pm
“What does “Sincerely” mean, I wonder? Can a Conceptual Author be sincere?”
Fascinating, puzzling, provocative exchange between Kent Johnson and Craig Dworkin in the newest issue of Claudius App adds a very interesting spin to the current conversation surrounding sincerity. Here is the encounter between them (maybe? or maybe it’s all just a hoax?).
After considering the Johnson/Dworkin letters, be sure to check out the whole issue, it’s got a bunch of killer stuff in it by Joyelle McSweeney, Ariana Reines, Brandon Downing & Daniel Tiffany, and loads more.
Live-tweeting “2001: A Space Odyssey”
This Sunday evening, I’ll be live-tweeting while watching 2001: A Space Odyssey with Elisa Gabbert, Sommer Browning, Dan Boehl, and Dan Magers. The details:
For reasons I find difficult to articulate, even to myself, Sommer Browning (fellow Denverite, Birds LLC poet, and comrade in comedy) and I are planning to “live-tweet” Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey this Sunday night at 7 p.m. Mountain Time (9 p.m. Eastern). It’s not going to be on TV or anything; we’re just going to rent it and watch it and tweet about it. (It’s no coincidence that “MST” stands for both Mountain Standard Time and Mystery Science Theater! Unfortunately, we’re currently on Daylight Saving Time.) If you have this movie in your arsenal or can get access to it, you should join us! We’ll be using the hashtag
#2001#2k1. My Twitter handle is @egabbert and Sommer’s is (wait for it) @vagtalk. Also joining us will be Dan Boehl, Dan Magers and ________?
My Twitter handle is @adjameson. I’ll also be happy to chat about the film (and movies in general) on Facebook then. Hope you can join us!
Lily Hoang—
What size shoe do you think Walter Benjamin wore?
I have small feet. I usually buy in kids, cheaper and cuter, though a little heavy on the glitter for my taste. It’s a problem.
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Erik Stinson—
Does someone you know “get a boner” when they write?
If so, which “boner”?
And if so does that someone feel they need a “meat log” to write?
A D Jameson—
Does someone you know “use substances” when they write?
If so, which “substances”?
And if so does that someone feel they need “substances” to write?
Help Save Mud Luscious Press!!!
Do you remember when Mud Luscious Press announced the chapbook Y2K by Ken Baumann? What about Rat Beast by Nick Antosca, or They by Brian Evenson?
Do you remember when they announced We Take Me Apart by Molly Gaudry?
Do you remember when they announced books by Ben Brooks, Sasha Fletcher, Norman Lock, Michael Stewart, Mathis Stewart, Gregory Sherl, or Matt Bell?
Do you remember when they birthed a NEPHEW? With titles by Andrew Borgstrom, Robert Kloss, Darby Larson and forthcoming Brandi Wells.[…]
Now they need our help. It’s best summed up straight from the horse’s mouth: “We need to raise roughly $2000 to continue our release schedule of the next 2 novel(la)s and the next 2 Nephew titles. Seriously, or Mud Luscious Press may tank. For real.”
So how can you help?
[Basically, buy a book!]
via Ben Spivey (click his name for more options)
Faulkner in Color
In 1929, at the time of its publication, William Faulkner said “I wish publishing was advanced enough to use colored ink” in regards to his vision for The Sound and the Fury, specifically, that each of the many intricately layered timeline threads would be printed in different colors. He resigned to using italics in order to address the past, which was rather confusing, given the blunt binary of italics vs. roman text, and the myriad tiers of pasts therein. Reading Faulkner, I always ignore the italics, as part of the allure in reading him is the palpable confusion of memory — the contradictions, oversights, strange overlaps — as similar to the very way we remember, or mis-remember, our actual experiences. The initial modernists (e.g. Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner) seemed to imbue their books, inadvertently or not, with living matter: the tongue of alliteration; the pulse of cadence; the corrosive and unreliable mind; the insecurity of communication; the unruly heart, the very messy things though which we lived, rather than simply read. Eighty-three years since its publication, English publishing house Folio Society is publishing the book as the author intended. It’s gorgeous, $345 dollars, a promised delivery conveniently in the light of August.
Q.E.D. – Part 2: WHAT MATTERS/WHAT’S MATTER
The MAK Center Schindler House, Los Angeles
9 May 2012
Context Note: In April, May, and June of this year, Les Figues Press hosted a short series of long conversations on queer art and literature. Titled Q.E.D., in honor of Gertrude Stein’s novel by the same name (and one of the earliest coming-out stories), each Q.E.D. event explored the constructions of speech, art, literature, materiality, and sex. The conversations were moderated by Vanessa Place at the historic MAK-Schindler House, L.A.’s original nod to green architecture.
Q.E.D. Part Two featured Brian Teare, Michael du Plessis, and Lincoln Tobier.
***
Blocked off by thick and towering bamboo shoots, the hush of the Schindler House is a surprise even given its location on a quiet, residential West Hollywood street. The House belongs to the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles; it was originally built in 1922 as a two-family home and workspace by Rudolph M. Schindler for himself, his wife, and another couple. The House’s then-innovative indoor/outdoor, open-plan design was the basis for the “California houses” that came to litter the landscape throughout the mid-twentieth century. It is hard to imagine anyone actually living in the House as it stands now: almost entirely empty, the structure and its surroundings feel more like a church or a yoga studio. Visitors speak quietly, and it is hard not to step lightly, as if any exuberant move might knock down the concrete walls and let the rest of the world into this sacred bohemia of careful art and right living.
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July 4th, 2012 / 12:00 pm
July 4th, 2012 / 12:00 pm