The Literatti Take on the World of Object Art

Our very own Christian Jensen has been heading up a project with Ronald Andreassand in which 6 poets (including myself and fellow literartists Daniel Larsen and Sabrina Muck) were first charged with writing a poem for Matariki. Ronald Andreassend and Karen Chan then created a series of 7 ceramic light sculptures inspired by our poems. These were all exhibited with the poems at the Corban Estate during Matariki.

But that was just the beginning.

Next, the poets were asked to create object art that used the first collaboration as a spring-board - and the Global Eyes Feet Voice project was born. These objects, the original light sculptures and a photo series by Erin Gaffney, are part of the Global Eyes Feet Voice exhibition, which opened at Te Karanga Gallery on K Rd on Monday and runs until October 22nd. The exhibition includes a full colour book and multimedia CD including all of the poems and images of the objects as well as audio recordings of all of the poems.

Christian created a series of tokotoko talking sticks - handmade rimu walking sticks with poetry spiralling up its length. I created a series of twelve tea-light lamps, eight miniature handbound books and a series of three origami poetry flowers. Genevieve McLean created a series of prints. Daniel Larsen made the Global Eyes Feet Voice puzzle that greets you at the door. Ya Wen Ho created a series of drawings inspired by Renee Liang's poems. We all took the poems to the streets and photographs of the chalkings are also on display.

A comment from someone who was at the launch: "outstanding artwork ... inspired ... fabulous book ... great poems ... amazing ... stunning photography ... top!"

But that's still not all.

Myself, Daniel, Christian and Genevieve have also been collaborating with pianist Jonathan Besser and musicians Paul Williams, Craig Humphries and Otis Mace.

On October 24th we will all be performing together at the Thirsty Dog from 8 pm. It's just $5 on the door. Copies of the book are available from the exhibition and at the performance evening for $30.

If you can, do try to get along to the exhibition (it is very much new ground for all involved), and make damn sure you don't miss out on a copy of this beautiful book either!

Hopefully we'll see you on the 24th at the performance evening. It's going to be awesome. I love working with new live musicians. And my rehearsals with Jonathan have been fantastic.

View the Facebook event and RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146313606189&ref=mf

Until then,

Miriam

P.S. You may have noticed our website is down at the moment - there has been a technical problem with our server, but it should be back online within the next couple of days.

Ghosts begins - expressions of interest sought

We have a new project. It is killer. It is open for other people to get their fingers in the pie as well.

Nine Inch Nails released their instrumental album Ghosts onto the creative commons last year, complete with a series of images. The Literatti are writing a show to this album and series of images and invite members of the recently developed Literatti Pool and others to be involved. The show will be about the influence of our ancestors and idols, a homage to the ghosts of the modern age so to speak. Contributing performers will write to both the piece of music selected and this theme. In this way we hope to create a performance poetry show that also tells a story.

There are limited places to be filled, so interested parties will need to get in quick. We invite contributing performers to make expressions of interest. We will select contributing performers based on three things:

(1) they write excellent poetry, suitable for performance

(2) they can perform. well.

(3) they are willing to rehearse regularly and collaborate.

We will also need to ensure that you are available for the workshop and rehearsal schedule, once it has been set. But please allow for a first workshop in late October/early November (a Sunday afternoon) and one in late January, and then fortnightly thereafter.

Expressions of interest should include a brief bio and a sample of some of your best poetry. Because of the nature of the event, we cannot promise a set fee to each contributor, instead contributing performers will paid a proportional split of the proceeds made from ticket sales. Due to the regulations of creative commons licensing agreements, this is a not-for-profit event. All proceeds will be distributed between contributors.

The show will be jointly directed by Miriam Barr and Christian Jensen as part of the official hand-over of the role of creative director. Christian will be in his homeland of Norway from November 2009 - March 2010, and much of the writing of the show will take place then, with technology again making Literatti collaboration across great distances possible. Miriam will workshop with the other contributing performers during this time, and there will be a month of intense in person rehearsals when Christian returns. The aim is to open the show in late April or May.

If you are interested in being involved as a contributing performer please email an expression of interest to theliteratti@gmail.com. If you have footage of yourself performing or audio which could help us to get a feel for what you do, please include links. Please be aware that we may ask to meet up with you and check out what you do in person before we make a final decision.