A Long Illness
A long illness. Graphite on paper. 2021.
The Future of the Oracle
Georgieva’s practice ranges from film to performance to installation, often incorporating herself as a character, pop icon, and/or feminine trope. Her work utilizes lo-fi materials and production to merge traditional, mythological, and historical themes with contemporary popular culture.
A Cry of Desire, A Cry of Goodbye
Autumn light makes the crayfish eggs hatch.
The last nymphs recently fell from the trees. Many have made their way into the darkness. The first ones that came out already know what the sap tastes like.
They sing silence underground.
About a Lover from Tunisia
My dear Mercurial friends, today I present the work of Arturo Desimone, whom I first met through his translations of the poetry of Blanca Varela.
The Uncertain Geography of Lightning: Poems of Bartomeu Crespí
Everyday language has its limits. Poetic language multiplies the number of ways I can communicate with the world.
Never Mind the Beasts
Written with tremendous energy, Never Mind The Beasts (Dostoyevsky Wannabe) is Marcus Slease's debut novel. Beginning in Portadown, Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the book details the author's move with his family, as a small boy, first to Milton Keynes and then to Las Vegas before documenting his further solo travels trying to survive on the meagre pickings of a writer whilst teaching English as a second language in everywhere from South Korea, Poland to Turkey and, latterly, Spain (Madrid and Barcelona). Read an excerpt here.
Sea-Creatures
We lie within the deep flow
feeding constantly. We
seep slowly beneath ice-packs
green like peppermint tea.
How like a winter
A setting for Shakespeare’s sonnet ‘How like a winter’
Don't They Know It's the End of the World?
World-ending has long been a popular scenario for the future even before capitalism, with the apocalypse for example. However, the hopelessness that things will never change is what this is about—as we fall dependent on crisis capitalism, our awareness could make way for an apathetic witnessing of the end of the world.
Are we Living in Disneyland?
A shallow interpretation of our consumerism today maintains that we are all given an ‘illusion of choice’. Coca-Cola is Republican, and Pepsi is Democrat, with this key conceptualisation of politics as soft drinks pertaining that either choice is bad for you. However, it’s precisely that choice of substituting one product for another that, in turn, develops our identity from the culture of significance that holds us captive.
Still life with Surgical Mask
Still Life With Surgical Mask. 2020. Oil on canvas. 12 x 9 in. New York. Paul Joseph Vogeler.
Coincidence
Coincidences transform reality. They are the touchstones of fate, places where narratives begin or break down, symptoms of pre-destination or randomness, depending on your intellect.
Scavenger Love
In this age of unprecedented pet ownership, Deborah Thompson reflects on the mysterious origins of humanity’s oldest friend. This charming essay comes from her book Pretzel, Houdini & Olive (Red Hen Press).
Poets of Pennsylvania
I present a lyrical compendium from Pennsylvania, a state of poets. Wallace Stevens and Gertrude Stein both hail from Pennsylvania, and today we are going to listen to some contemporary poets that bring this region to life: Grosholz, Shara McCallum, Katie Hays, Meg Day, Robin Becker, Todd Davis, Sara Grossman, Lisa Mangini, and Katie Bode-Lang.
Should we Meet at the Crossroads, Keep Walking
They call me the Perambulator. Everything must have a name, and it fits, I can’t deny it, for each new dawn finds me trudging the cobbles, working the streams and pools. Nothing makes sense without movement; I’m cast and reconstructed in every hard-won step.
Memories
Memories,
Coiling round the mind like water snakes,
Poisonous and medicinal.
A Furious Oyster
What if Pablo Neruda met a giant, interdimensional oyster? What if Neruda could narrate the encounter from the afterlife, generating extra material for his autobiography? From this bizarre premise an intoxicating poetry is born. Read this extract from Jessica Sequeira’s innovative novel A Furious Oyster (Dostoyevsky Wannabe), a book that deserves reading and re-reading.
Individuation or Institution?
Individuality, creativity and the development of organised religion do not always sit comfortable together. How does one negotiate one’s spiritual path between the homogenizing tendencies of institutions and the often unstructured inspiration and rebellions of individual creativity? Rob Preece explores Buddhism, individual spirituality and religious institutions through the lens of Jungian psychology, and specifically the Puer Aerernus and Senex archetypes.
Mayka
Mayka, 35x50 mixto carton, 2020. Dima Damyanova.
Kristina Bruuk: Between Heaven and Helsinki
Bill Drummond reflects on the legend of the “missing” Finnish singer Kristina Bruuk, what she represents, both past and present, and how her life continues to fascinate, even as her music remains unreleased, or rare and hard to find.
The never-ending quest…
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