Page 85 - Studio International - September October 1975

Konrad Fischer's gallery in apparent strength which comes
Düsseldorf last year he showed a from exactly the processes which
progression of metal plates from caused the poem to be formed in
1 to 12. The first piece - one plate the first place.' He talks about the
- was $700, and the twelfth piece tactile feel of words; grammar and
12 plates - was therefore $8,400. sense are dominated by the
Xerox copies of the poems are for independence of a word. The
sale, £5.00 black and white, poetry is concerned with the
£10.00 colour. Art-Rite, the New combination of separate units and
York magazine, carried an ad so is the sculpture. The poems
this summer paid for by cover the traditional structures of
Andre and friends which poetry, and there are laments,
congratulated the people of North sonnets, lyrics, Japanese haiku,
Vietnam on their victory. a satire on Cage's random theory,
Two more fables emerge from phonological analysis and protest
the long poems on Lindbergh and poems. There are several works he
Brown and Emerson in the Lisson calls Operas, lists of words for
exhibition. He became interested up to five voices, the voices
in Lindbergh the aviator as one of interchanging and the sounds
the first media heroes created by overlapping. These pieces, he
the popular press. After the suggests, are not for an audience
kidnapping of his child, but for the experience of the
Lindbergh became a supporter of performers. He talks of the roots
Fascism, believing that the Axis of poetry in music, and still finds
powers would achieve the problems he cannot resolve
'cleansing of Europe.' In the poem between the visual and the aural.
Andre quotes lines of prose from He has a great feeling for the
Lindbergh's book about his sound of words: the few pieces of
flight, We, and from other poetry on the tape have a
sources throughout his life. mesmeric, chanting quality.
Poetry and the visual arts have
The other 15-page poem had a long infatuation with each
consists of quotations from John other. Their marriage is the
Brown and Ralph Waldo essence of romanticism. They
Emerson. In 1859 Brown led a both suffer a time-honoured past
raid on the arsenal at Harpers and an obsolete future. Yet they
Ferry in an attempt to arm the continue to attract. When Andre
negroes in their fight against was asked directly about the
slavery. He was caught, tried and connection between his poetry and
hung on the eve of the revolution his sculpture he replied, 'let's just
which began in 1860. Emerson say the same person makes both.'
secretly believed in abolition but Lynda Morris
had not supported Brown because
Carl Andre his actions were against the law.
A page from Passport 1960 than any other game in the world. *The tape of Carl Andre on his
You sit back listening to a denim- Once the war started Emerson poetry was published by Audio Arts
in June 1975. It is available from
onto some new things and leaving bound encyclopedia. He says that emerged as a Unionist and the publishers at 92-104 Carnwath
some old things behind. So `one problem with going to abolitionist. Andre draws an Road, London SW6, or from the
Passport is I suppose my own visa performances in galleries and analogy with revolutionary Lisson Gallery, price £2.80.
stamp on my own progress as an museums is that they seem to go extremists in our time and the
artist.' One of the lectures he gave on for ever and one feels theoretical support they receive
in Oxford, and another at the embarrassed to walk out; from intellectuals (and artists)
Tate Gallery, were an explanation paintings and sculpture don't tinged with caution in practice. David Lamelas
of Passport. care at all if you lose interest in The poem quotes alternate lines ICA New Gallery
At the opening in Oxford he them and walk away.' In False from the account of Brown's raid 8 July-3 August
gave a reading of False Creek. Creek the audience could see the and from Emerson's Journals.
The poem is a collection of stack of unread cards diminish as Each line contains a reference to David Lamelas' new works at the
sentences on filing cards, in the reading drew to a close. colour, the colour of paint and the ICA continued to extend his
alphabetical order of their Upstairs at Oxford was the colour of prejudice. preoccupation with temporality
subject. It is an analysis of a narrative poem Still a Novel The subjects of the shorter and the structure of its
story found in a Vanity Press based on an incident in the life of poems range far and wide, from representation - narrative. His
book. (Vanity Press is the the photographer Eadweard a Brooklyn slum to the Conquest work in the past has used film,
American term for a publisher Muybridge. The 97 pages of of Mexico, from De Kooning, sequential slide projections and
you can pay to have your own xerox typescript resembled a Pollack [sic] and Gorky to the linear mountings of printed
book published.) The story was series of captions almost as though four Gospels, from a lament on photographs, sometimes in a
written by the mother of a Muybridge had photographed the Indian Wars to RI 11295 290, spatial presentation which aims at
Canadian artist who committed the event. Muybridge shot and his number in the US army. He evincing the structural differences
suicide in 1969. Andre is generally killed his wife's lover, a Major uses found texts in the poems as which the various modes of
uninterested in the performance Larkins: he was tried but he uses found materials in the representation impose upon
possibilities of his poetry but by acquitted on the grounds that 'he sculpture, and has only recently ostensibly the same event. His
any standards the reading was only intended to maim him for started to put the poems on walls. concern with the way that the
good theatre. Andre is confident life.' Andre supplied the It is tiring to read typing pasted understanding of events is
of his importance, and this leads additional information that flat on gallery walls. We read a determined by mediational
to an elevation of his audience's Muybridge was defended by the letter or a book at 45°, and we are differences began with a
expectations rather than personal lawyer of Governor Stanford, an not used to reading small type at concentration on the material
arrogance. The words of the important politician and patron, 90°. Andre talks about the differences of the sign-vehicles
piece were poignant, but they who had previously commissioned patterns the poems form. He can employed, but more recently this
remain a vehicle for the structure Muybridge to make the famous remember as a child, before he involvement has taken him much
of the work and for the artist's study of a horse's movements. could read, looking at books in further away from his previous
presence. To English ears Andre Andre's non-orthodox marxist the family library and preferring post-minimalist preoccupation
has a nasal intonation somewhere views have been well publicized, poetry pages to the heavy format with the plurality of 'realities'
between Vincent Price and Orson and they included a survival of prose. 'But' he continues, 'I am engendered in different
Welles. He talks rapidly, instinct that pardons necessary not saying that is a desirable end, representational forms. Indeed, he
disarming the company with evil. He plays specialist games I would not compose poems has never engaged in an explicit
anecdotes and obscure with the art market, and was one where the words were just materialism of the kind which one
information. He coins memorable of the most consistent supporters patterns as they are in painting .. . associates with Michael Snow and
phrases like 'photography is the of the defunct artist's contract. In but the choice of words and the the 'structuralists.' Nevertheless,
pornography of art' and with the New York a couple of years ago grouping of words have produced his earlier work has related to this
next breath explains why his work was on sale at 10% of forms which do not have an interest, however indirectly, with a
American football has more rules the buyer's salary per yard. At independent strength but a very concentration on material/formal
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