Leda and The Swan

 

Leda and The Swan, 2021

Wood, clay, felt, oil, steel

95  x 82 x 15 cm

Nocturne With Seven Isles

I.

From here, I climb the narrow island

through moon rock, shallows wide and white

                          as desert and survivor-littered:

jellyfish cruel and translucent in sea grass,

sand dollars melting black velvet.

 

Even the sea cannot contain itself:

 

I reel in a small sunfish, hook-torn

at the gills; I still toss him back,

as if by returning alone –

as if salvation –

 

only the limp float of his bright underside

              remains, a thin slice of flame among reeds.

 

I taste the salt on my lips,

                           wonder if this is how it began

              for the woman who turned

against God to watch her only city burn.

 

II.

 

We unearth places we once lived, the house

              sundered by lichen, drawers withering

              with summer herbs, the mammal

                           scent of soured boots,

              cedar fronds rotting

                           rooftop gutters. Tell me

about the brass bed frame,

              what love once wracked there

                           and of its leaving. Tell me

of each fountain swan, feathers greened with sea

              air. Sing me the names of everything lost,

              each ash and wing. Invent them if you must.

 

III.

 

I listen everywhere for the psalm

that echoed off the stone walls

in the winter chapel:

yet is their strength labor and sorrow;

                                    for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Ives’ dissonant harmonies like walls shuddering

inward – we spend our days as a tale that is told –

I sand the music as if the melody

could sculpt our sinews back to bone.

 

IV.

 

Months tide shores of unanswered letters;

I write you as if you were dead.

 

I think of collapse, its Latin roots

meaning to fall together – imagine

 

cathedral arches, spine-sharp

                            leaning toward and toward
              to imprison saints radiant in shards –

 

Now, too late, I understand

              I did not mistake desire

but its direction – somewhere beyond –

              a music half-remembering itself.

 

Look how we fail in increments

                             like last century’s estates, opening

              into stone arches;

                             even as we refuse

to go, see how the body takes us there, without

              our blessing or consent.

 

V.

 

after the festival           you exhaled                sprawled

on the basement floor             quiet  for once

possibly content                                    for an hour we breathed

late light  there two solitudes                pooled together

then                    unlike time and time before                I just turned

the brass knob and watched you leave           our rucksack history

slung over your shoulder           in that silence             we discovered

the door          we’d razed cities and sabotaged bridges to find

 

VI.

 

I excavate a lamp

from the basement –

how satisfying to draw

the shade taut, to tear

bulb from carton and pull

the chain. To make light.

              I need to see

                          what I agreed

                          to leave;

 

is it the light

I love or is it leaving

everything else in darkness?

 

 

The empty room asks:

Now, then, what do you want?

 

VII.

 

Here, tangerines like paper lanterns

wait for night to rob their glow.

Oil on the canal as if from a dreamer,

beneath. Here let us claw

match and flint; let us ask with fire

what the water has forgotten.

 

 

 

Leah Silvieus, 2016 

 

Behind the mask, another mask

Πίσω από τη μάσκα, μια  άλλη μάσκα / Behind the mask, another mask

 

 

Βιβλιογραφία, σημειώσεις

Bibliography / REF/ Works Cited / Films / Performances 

 

 

Τέχνη στο συγκείμενο (Art in context ) 

Αμφισβητήσεις της δεξιότητας στη νεωτερικότητα 

 Κωστής Βελώνης

 

 

Bialik, Kristek,  Busby Berkeley and the Art of Order, The Outtake, April 25, 2015 

https://medium.com/the-outtake/busby-berkeley-and-the-art-of-order-81e42c25bb6d  

 

 

Cahun, Claude, Downie, Louise,  Malherbe, Suzanne

Don't kiss me : the art of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore ,  London : Tate,  Jersey : Jersey Heritage Trust, 2006.

 

 

Gee, Felicity, A Review of Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask , ASAP Journal,  April 27, 2017 

http://asapjournal.com/a-review-of-gillian-wearing-and-claude-cahun-behind-the-mask-another-mask-felicity-gee/

 

 

Gombrowicz, Witold, Φερντυτούρκε, μτφρ. Τασία Χατζή,  Ερατώ, Αθηνα,1984   

 

Greenberger, Alex. Philip Guston KKK Paintings: Why an Abstract Painter Returned to Figuration to Confront Racism. ARTnews, 30 Sept, 2020

 

https://www.artnews.com/feature/philip-gustons-kkk-paintings-history-meaning-1234572056/

 

Elkin, Lauren. The many masks of Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun, RA magazine, 16 March 2017.

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/magazine-identity-parade-gillian-wearing-claude-cahun

Emelife, Aindrea. Philip Guston's KKK images force us to stare evil in the face – we need art like this. The Guardian, 28 Sept. 2020.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/sep/28/philip-guston-kkk-images-force-us-to-stare-evil-in-the-face-we-need-art-like-this

 

Fox, Charlie, Get Your Freak On: On the recurring appearance of the mask in art, Frieze, 1 Oct. 2017

https://frieze.com/article/get-your-freak-0

 

Harris, Steven, Coup d'œil. Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2001), pp. 89, 91-111 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600380 


Higgie, Jennifer, One Take: Human Mask, Frieze,  17 Dec. 2014 

https://frieze.com/article/one-take-human-mask

 

Jarry, Alfred . Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll pataphysicien: Roman néo-scientifique suivi de Spéculations Paris: Charpentier, 1911. 

 

Jarry, Alfred.  Ο Υμπύ βασιλιάς, μτφρ. Σάκης Μανιάτης, Αθήνα: Κείμενα, 1972 

 

Jarry, Alfred. Υμπύ Τύραννος, μτφρ. Αχιλλέας Κυριακίδης, Αθήνα: Opera, 2003

 

 

Κονταράτος, Γιάννης. Philip Guston - Ο ζωγράφος στην Εδέμ, Αθήνα : έκδοση ΑΣΚΤ 2014.

 

Laing, Olivia. The Body Snatchers, Frieze Magazine, Oct. 15, 2017 

https://www.frieze.com/article/body-snatchers  

 

 

Latimer, Tirza, Claude Cahun’s Mirror in the Lens, The Gay &Lesbian Review Worldwide, July 31, 2015   

 https://glreview.org/article/claude-cahuns-mirror-in-the-lens/

 

Λουκρήτιος. Για την φύση των πραγμάτων (De Rerum Natura)  μτφρ. Θ.Αντωνιάδης -Ρ.Χαμέτη,  (Θεσσαλονίκη : εκδόσεις Θύραθεν, 2013) Βιβλίο ΙΙ, 216 .

 

Lubin, David M., Masks, Mutilation and Modernity: Anna Coleman Ladd and the First World War, Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 47, No. 3/4 (2008), 4-15


https://www.jstor.org/stable/25435155  

Rhem, James (Ed.), Ralph Eugene, Meatyard: The Family Album Of Lucybelle Crater And Other Figurative Photographs  Published by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publisher,  2002. 

 

Searle, Adrian.  Pioneer of perversity: Pierre Molinier's extreme exposures, The Guardian,  August 25, 2015

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/aug/25/pioneer-of-perversity-pierre-molinier-extreme-exposures

 

Serres,  Michel, Το Παράσιτο, επιμ. Διονύσης Καββαθάς, μτφρ. Νίκος Ηλιάδης,

Αθήνα : Εκδόσεις Σμίλη, 2009.

 

Skidmore, Maisie, The Forbidden Photo-Collages of Pierre Molinier. Another Magazine, Nov 12, 2015

https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8019/the-forbidden-photo-collages-of-pierre-molinier

Sorene, Paul, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi: The Most Punk Play Of All Time, Feb.7, 2017 

https://flashbak.com/alfred-jarrys-ubu-roi-the-most-punk-play-of-all-time-372959/

 

Wecker,  Menachem,  Alfred Jarry’s ‘King Ubu’ Inspired Everyone From the Dadaists to the Beatles—and His Fascist Buffoon Is Now More Relevant Than Ever , January 27, 2020

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/alfred-jarry-morgan-library-1758372

Welby Everard, Miranda. Imaging the Actor: The Theatre of Claude Cahun , Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1 (2006), pp. 3-24 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600491  

Valentine, Victoria.  L.,Trenton Doyle Hancock: What If Torpedo Boy, My Black Superhero, Met Up With Philip Guston’s Klan Character? Culture Type, Oct.9 ,2020

 

https://www.culturetype.com/2020/10/09/trenton-doyle-hancock-what-if-torpedo-boy-my-black-superhero-met-up-with-philip-gustons-klan-character/

 

Velonis, Kostis. Alfred Jarry and Asger Jorn: The Epicurean Influence as Social “Swerve”

https://www.hildegoesasger.org/2015/07/alfred-jarry-and-asger-jorn-the-epicurean-influence-as-social-swerve-by-kostis-velonis/

 

 

Performances /Films

 

 

Ubu Roi, Marionetteatern Stockholm, Holland Festival 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEHVzH-kzWY

 

Alfred Jarry, "Ubu Roi" (Jean Christophe Averty 1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vuzhkEkNSQ

 

“Ubú tells the truth”, William Kentridge, 1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=cVWh_kYD2GY&feature=emb_title

 

Claude Cahun, Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7QXL2fiAKQ

 

Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask by Sarah Howgate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn1_mZgT1O0

 

Photographies, Archives, Pierre Molinier, Auction –Drouot –Richelieu, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp54w54crY4

 

Busby Berkeley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIO9y1xMPIA

Footlight Parade (1933) – Human Waterfall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRqcZcrgPaU

Anna Coleman Ladd and the Facial Prosthetics of World War I

https://www.artandobject.com/video/anna-coleman-ladd-and-facial-prosthetics-world-war-i

 

Wildly Strange Ralph Eugene Meatyard

https://www.anatomyfilms.com/ralph-eugene-meatyard-unrequited-love/

 

Fukuchan Monkey in wig, mask, works Restaurant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS7QkjIKOxk

 

Untitled (Human Mask) by Pierre Huyghe (Snippets)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk4gJBoYyhU&list=PLJimIUTI3SLMIRcXdcxRRJV44mMPU5-CI&index=1

 

Pierre Huyghe - Untitled (human mask)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk4gJBoYyhU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEgiVlnP8nc

 

Trenton Doyle Hancock, The Exchange, 2020. Film by Greg Poole. Produced by James Cohan, 2020

 

https://www.jamescohan.com/artists/trenton-doyle-hancock?view=slider