MoJoian 5 Babel

As part of the Visual Poetry class in the Right of Writing module, I used the Babel collaboration as a collaborative exercise. It was the first time quite a few participants had been given a severe time limit to add/subtract from a creative exercise. I'm, hugely pleased with the result - I think so will they be when I show them tomorrow!  As we only had an hour left by the time we begun this, with 6 participants, everyone got 10 minutes...a hard task indeed! Each participant had a copy in a round-robin exercise, so more results will come to light.

Babel Collaboration # 3 Cheryl Penn/John M Bennett

1.    uncertainty/ confusion

2.    paper trails and ignorance

3.    cluttered pages dis-arranged/re-arranged/un-arranged

4.    blank

5.    bewilderment/perplexity/puzzlment/multitudenous voices

6.    broken letters

7.    disorientation: how is the babble today different from Babel?

Babel Collaboration # 2 - Cheryl Penn and Jackie Freer (South Africa)

I have at last got to copying this collaboration which Jax finished a good 2 weeks ago. It's a beauty - loaded with visual poetry, Babel and cross references, things red and well-read. Pale letters and whispered phrases, doomed utterances and leaking letters: "Big head, never mind Big Foot" - babble - something we're all still so good at. Block by block, letter by letter, pride is still our downfall - confusion reigns still.

Babel. Edition 9 # 1. Cheryl Penn and David Stone.

I have not done a large collaboration for quite a quite a while, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it pans out.  The idea is that I send participants 2 copies of a chapbook titled Babel, one to keep and one to alter.  The original altered copy is sent back to me and I make an edition of 7.  I keep one, two get sent back to the artist, one bound, one unbound for them to copy and reproduce if they wish.  They also receive 5 other chapbooks from other artists who have followed this same process. 

The first one I have tackled is with the poet David Stone (USA). As a wordsmith David is immediately responsive to titles and images and his poetry is its usual enigmatic, apparently disconnected phrases and words which, once read somehow make total sense. They also evoke strong mental imagery. 

“bracketed barriers enclosed the summation of

orders

toes tagged

silence lost” 

As I had a bit of time on my hands, the copies I made have numerous hand painted elements, but I‘m not sure it this practice will remain, although 7 copies is quite manageable. There are an extra few copies for him and I to both distribute. 

The original looks like the image below (the centre spread) - and if you would like to participate, please let me know.

Babbbbbbblllleeee - John Bennett and Cheryl Penn

AlphaBot - Cheryl Penn/John Bennett (USA)

I sent John a series of glyphs which he altered, sent back and I completed. 20 small books were made from the result, which also included a derivative painting 2.2cm x .85 cm, see: http://shadowlandwriting.blogspot.com

Up and Running. David Baptiste Chirot (USA)/Cheryl Penn (South Africa)

UP AND RUNNING

 How 3-D is 3-D? (you cant believe everything you read)

Its production time again - everyone airtight? The darkness is rising with silent investment partners

gazing at tree tops from down below

its so light up there.

the great wars created unique soldiers

ashes from battles

forages on well eaten paths.

courage was abundant 

before the years of bloodshed and assimilation a mélange of people so foreign 

the moon did not challenge 

their uncontested rule. 

3-D

THREE DEE

THREE DEE DEEP THEY LIE

LIE LIE--OR LIE LAY???

DIE DIE-- OR DAY DAY--

THREE THREE OR 3  3--

emerging in.

3D--

a real life sized indeed 3D figure emerges from out the fog embroiled darkness, shifting and shuddering shadows on the gleaming flesh--large sturdy reflective over lapping tiles and sliding surfaces--the armored exoskeletal development of reptilian life forms transferred from Pleistocene fashions to the most up-to-date Hoodies and Tutus--a battle girded being stuck in swamps--

finding its way to Broadway--glorious and humble--the creatures of the hour--

sipping bottled water and looking oh so much more lifelike--

so sturdily far more 3D-like

than their poor seeming human companions--

who tilt back on easy chairs--slipping into 2D silhouettes--seated by the wide open windows--where the sea breezes blow steadily through the sylvan curtains--

yes oh yes

an ecstasy of 3D--!!

a truly triumphant twilight--

haunted by the movements of the 3D tanks, clamoring and clanking--

on their 3D maneuvers--

hustling you--into the bushes--at the back of the cinema--

while all around 

a quiet sweet scented spring rain falls--

into a OneD--sleep

seeping 4D dreams

It was quiet there too, like the Namib  or the Great Kalahari.

(In 4D)

Fans like kaleidoscopes and as soon as she said don’t be frightened I was.  
It was her face and the bridge, 
they were from another time, 
a forward time backwards. 
Sea mist is really telling, 
as are windmills, 
one wont move without the other. 
Or were they drones? 
I just couldn’t say during the pause.  
Life in black and white - it seems so easy among the poplar trees, and any dog could smell the way. Treacherous fragrance was clear to him. 
When children cling, they grip hard. 
Down in the dungeons a strange fire burned - the one everyone was looking for.  
She could see he knew that chloroform was her way. 

 And then he was gone…