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St. Jude's Random Spectacular – St. Jude's Prints

Good Stuff

Nice write-up of Random Spectacular:

Creative Review - St Jude's Random Spectacular

Out Now

Get them while they're hot! What? Random Spectacular, the first issue of an irregular journal published by St Jude's (of print and fabric fame). Here's an image of the finished product...

The idea for the texts I wrote came from the text in Adam Bridgland's images - firstly, as displaced titles. Secondly, the term 'posy' suggested a mode of writing. Posy now means a small bunch of flowers, but, it used to mean an inscription inside of a ring. The texts were cyclic, without end, without beginning - Ouroboros, the snake devouring itself - each round effecting the reading of the next, intonation shifting. sense developing. There were issues with typesetting the ring texts, they became stanzas. Here are the two 'posy' poems in their original form (the one used and the one not used):

 

Happy, All Smiles

One of the pages from Random Spectacular featuring a short poem by me. If they have a title, it's the txt in Adam Bridgland's accompanying images (really it's my poetry accompanying Adam's artwork). More example pages and, soon, info on how to obtain the journal from St. Jude's is here.

Flying Start, Poetry & Art

I've migrated. It's about expediency, maintaining the self-build site just ate into my time. It was boring too, compared to the visual freedom and play of my KOLUMBOO sites (see the menu, above). Also, I'm signifying a change, I'm getting back into the publishing fray - submitting to magazines, publishers and the rest. I'll continue to self-publish poems here, because it's an insane occupation if nobody gets to read what I write. But, with all my online works (literary and visual), I'm intent on making them physical realities too - object forms. Plus, the 'blog' engine is superior for disseminating news, with Facebook, Twitter (etc. etc.) integration. The old sites are still accessible (see the menu, still above) - they form a narrative, plot a steady decline in my output, reveal the wastage (the rejects, the hesitant and the unsettled). Anyway, here's the latest...

 

These images are the work of Ashley John, they're quasi-illustrations of poems in a sequence of mine titled brothers. I always intend they become a 'picture' book, and I produced my own PDF version (compare it here). It was okay, but the images didn't add anything. Having seen Ashley's artworks develop over the years (we work at aspex), I decided to ask if he'd be interested in tackling the poems. I wanted something 'responding' not just demonstrative - so, I didn't prompt Ashley, feed him background or my own sense of the poems. I'm so pleased with the results, they embark from the words, going places I'd not perceived. They are all Ashley, I'm chuffed to have my poems included within them. And, people have bought them - they hang on people's walls at home - now, that's f'ing brilliant. There are ten poems in the sequence, Ashley's working through them. Once complete, I want to get them published - a high-quality numbered edition, maybe - or something accessible, cheaper without damaging the images. We're on the lookout for publishing opportunities and grant contributions... so, if you know of any? Meanwhile, the four prints above are included in the exhibition Must Have Been...Something You Said at aspex). Big thank you, Ash, you're bloody marvellous.

 

There's more. Artist (renowned printmaker) Adam Bridgland asked me to write two nugget poems to accompany two works he'd created for Random Spectacular - a new, occasional arts journal by St. Jude's gallery. That first issue will be available very soon, in time for Christmas. It sounds a lively publication, full of the amazing artists (Mark Heard, Jonny Hannah, Angie Lewin, Maggie Li and more). It features Jake Tilson too. Jake was the first tutor I had as an undergraduate at the West Surrey College of Art & Design - he was brilliant, a recent RCA graduate editing a groundbreaking graphic zine called Atlas - he worked with a handful of us students to produce a mag-in-a-bag (well, a brown envelope). I'm more excited at being associated with Jake than about being a contributor. I'll let you know when Random Spectacular is out, and where it can be purchased.