VANITAS : a journal of poetry, writings by artists, criticism, and essays. During its decade of intervention in the public realm, VANITAS came out quasi-annually, serving as a forum for international voices with an emphasis on coming to grips with current world situations. Each issue contained writings by artists whose primary modes were non-literary and featured the work of a visual artist. [www.vanitasmagazine.net]
For the seventh and final issue of VANITAS, we examine the idea of The Self. The work featured in issue 7 tests just how far the self can be stretched, partially as an exercise in self-expression, partially in search of what used to be called experience. Self, not so much in personae as in faces, in the sense the Mods used the term — referring to someone with style, perhaps within a culture of style, but an individual expression of that culture, or perhaps someone who can seemingly invent her own style, just standing there.
This issue features new work by Bruce Andrews, Mary Jo Bang, Anselm Berrigan, Steve Dickison, Danielle Dutton, Tonya Foster, John Godfrey, Robert Hunter, Paolo Javier, Ann Lauterbach, Kimberly Lyons, Dan Machlin, Gerard Malanga, Judith Malina, Filip Marinovich, Harry Matthews, Michael McClure, Anna Moschovakis, Stephen Motika, Jennifer Moxley, Michael Palmer, Aram Saroyan, Lewis Warsh, and many more. Featuring artwork by Diana Michener, Carol Szymanski, Gerard Malanga, Rudy Burckhardt, and Vivien Bittencourt.
7 comments:
I am in love with this poem. And the image, Robert Desnos . . . all of it. Thank you for this!
And a quiet voice from the city shadows said... Thank you very much, Nin!
I think this is splendid in every way, including its visual appearance on the Vanitas website. I've spent a lot of time with the poem and the Hopper (which seem like a merged experience), but finally found the Desnos in French and read other translations. At first I thought that perhaps this was a Trans/Version poem I had forgotten, but then I found that it wasn't. Of all the English translations I've read, this is really the best -- the "softest" in sound, the most natural and the most precise, all of which make it the most powerful. Curtis
Curtis,
"A merged experience" is nice. Perhaps a joint venture.
I believe soft -- and slow -- was the sound I had wanted with this "free version" of the Desnos.
To confess, it was made so long ago as to veritably be of the era, if not also under the shadow, of Hopper.
Though you'll have seen there is also the sailor-on-leave aspect of the version, a certain cavalier taking of "liberties".
In these mergers one must always show up with some sort of portfolio of one's own.
You have a good feeling for mergers, which always include sub-portfolios.
In my professional experience, I prefer mergers, partnerships and simple third-party contracts and licenses to joint ventures, which tend to be cumbersome and messy.
So it's either a successful merger or an unusually well-operated joint venture.
'tis very beautiful and echoes of smiles are felt within.
And where better?
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