Caesura, Syndicate, Poetry at the Sutton Gallery

I recently read an article on Edinburgh’s live poetry scene – not the best informed of articles, as it managed to omit two of the best regular events entirely. I’m going to say something about them here and also another event that has just started.

Caesura takes place on the second Friday of each month, usually upstairs at the Artisan Bar on London Road, but it has also been known to use the Yellow Bench Cafe on Leith Walk. The focus tends to be on poets writing from the fringes of the mainstream or, at least, in that uncategorisable hinterland “whaur extremes meet” (McDiarmid). You can always expect the unexpected; a few months ago, the Marvo Men came up with a unique performance using a script, pre-recorded material and material recorded on the night from other artists and the audience. The result was mesmerising (and also entertaining). Sometimes the attempts at experiment feel already well travelled, but more often than not make me feel glad I made the effort to come along. The bar is normally packed, the atmosphere is chaotic and MC Graeme Smith’s introductions contribute, engagingly, to a welcome lack of slick and polish. The next Caesura is on Friday 8 November, 7pm.

Syndicate is an altogether different kind of event, even if half the audience appear to be the same people that attend Caesura. It meets at Inspace, a university building, but this is no anonymous lecture hall. It’s a sparse, artistic space, the perfect venue for an events series that seeks to showcase performances in which the spoken word meets cutting-edge technology. Film, music, theatre, poetry, digital technology – all tinged with the avant-garde – combine to create an experience for an audience that’s unlikely to be replicated anywhere else in the city. Like Caesura, the experiments sometimes work astonishingly well and other times they fall flat, but what doesn’t work for me often works well for others. You won’t see or hear anything mainstream here. It’s an event to expand the imagination and it nearly always does that for me. Syndicate doesn’t have a regular day/time, even though it meets most months. It pops up when it feels like it. The next Syndicate is on Tuesday 22nd October, 7pm.

Poetry at the Sutton Gallery is organised by artist, poet and editor, Colin Herd. The gallery, situated on Dundas Street, also runs art exhibitions that change regularly. It's a small, intimate venue and you can look at the artworks during breaks between readings over a glass of wine. The first poetry event featured Andrew Spragg and McGillivray. The second takes place this Thursday 17th October, 7pm and will feature Samantha Walton, Lila Matsumoto and Jane Goldman.

The Organist

My poem, 'The Organist', accompanied the artwork in my previous post, at the Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh.

And here are three more photos from the installation (art by Fiona Nealon, Susie Wilson and Jennifer Bruce, photos by Andy Philip):

Photos from the Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh 2010

Here are a few photos from the Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh. It was a huge affair with countless bands, poets, and artists combining for a feast of aural and visual art through an entire weekend. The Guardian presents a flavour of what was happening, and so did the Scotsman newspaper. The photos below (kindly provided by Andy Philip) are all from an installation built around my poem, 'The Organist'. It's a relatively new unpublished poem centring on the walk a minister makes to his church on a Sunday morning. Thematically, it deals with religious faith and emotion. I'm astonished by the artwork. Quite amazing to see the way the artists - Fiona Nealon, Susie Wilson and Jennifer Bruce - engaged with the poem, and it makes me want to do more such collaboration.

Fascinating, that pink hand daubed on the Bible, and the poem fragments scrawled on top of the cut-up Bible circles...

The words, 'My mind is his bootleg cathedral' and the other fragments come from the poem, which also features the hymn 'All Things Bright and Beatiful'. As for the bit in the middle, is that really what I think it is!?

Paper art, presumably more from the Bible, stuck to the walls

You could stand in the middle of all this and listen to me reading the poem, which is printed on the table below. Nice to see that someone actually did. Thank you!

Hidden Door

If you're anywhere near Edinburgh, don't miss Hidden Door at the Roxy Art House this weekend (full programme, details, cost etc. at the link). It's a huge event of genuine cultural significance. I'll be reading a few sets of poems, but I am only a tiny dot among 9 other poets, 10 film-makers, 30 bands, and 40 artists. Should be a fantastic event.

By Leaves We Live 2009

This Saturday, from 11am-6pm, I’ll be at the Scottish Poetry Library for its annual By Leaves We Live book fair. It’s the kind of event you can walk in and out of at any time during the day, although there are scheduled seminars (see link). Many artists, poets and small presses will be displaying their books, pamphlets and who knows what else. I’ll be there for the whole day because I’m staffing the Magma stall. If you’re interested in browsing the magazine or in a discount subscription, then come and speak to me!

Song Of The Clyde

Artist, Douglas Robertson, asked me if he could post my poem, Nuclear Submarines, from The Opposite of Cabbage, to his blog along with an image of one of his carvings, Song of the Clyde. You can see the result here. I love the carving. Goes with the poem perfectly.

After the Events

Last night, the award ceremony and readings for the Scottish National Galleries creative writing competition went really well. It was professional without being stressful, and the speeches from the organisers and the main sponsor – the Scottish Qualifications Authority (good on those people for their generous support of initiatives like this!) were warm, short and well done.

The commended writers and the second and first placed writers all read their piece in turn while the artwork that had inspired each one was displayed on a giant screen. The writers in the ‘unpublished’ category read first. I’ve got to say that I was astonished that some of those people were unpublished! They won’t be in that situation for long if they submit their stuff. Good to hear poems from Anna Dickie and the winner, Andrew (not ‘AB’) Jackson. Then it was the turn of the ‘published’ category. Some good stuff here too, of course, from the likes of Alan Gay and the winner, Ian McDonough, whose poem was well worth the first place. My reading was fine, and the prize was great – a illustrated book from the Gallery of Modern Art, a book of Scottish poems, a beautiful anthology featuring paintings and poems from two previous years of the competition, and a selection of tickets-for-two to various art exhibitions.

I talked to Elizabeth Gold (one of the stars of last Sunday's Great Grog readings) and a few other folk at the reception. Then I rushed up the road to hear the tail-end of Robert Crawford’s reading and discussion, which was very good. That review which suggested his new poems lacked “personal feeling”? Don’t want to go on about this, but what a load of nonsense! As early as page 4 in Full Volume, you get:

The Change of Life

Sometimes full volume is a breathy whisper.
‘There’s something I need to say.’ You tilt your ear

Towards love’s ensuing, lifelong pent-up silence
Crackling with all you want, but fear to hear.

That’s just superb!

Ekphrastic Competition

My poem, Theatre of Marcellus, has been judged runner-up in the 2008 Creative Writing Competition run by the National Galleries of Scotland, the English-Speaking Union and the Scottish Poetry Library. The idea was to write a poem inspired by an artwork in one of the National Galleries. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page (at the link), under the “published adults” category, to find that Shore Poet, Ian McDonough, was the winner, and that I shared the runner-up spot with none other than Alan Gay.

Not sure I want to post the poem here at the moment, but here’s the photograph (a little information also at the link) that inspired it. Amazing photo!

Chocolate Jesus Cancelled

The “chocolate Jesus” exhibit has been cancelled from the art show due to open on 2 April at a New York gallery.

The gallery’s artistic director, Mark Semler, said the decision to cancel was a result of "strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing.” I wish he’d taken the decision to explain what they were doing rather than simply cancelling (although I don’t think the cancellation will be of any great loss to art history).

However when he says that “the timing of the exhibition - when Christians mark the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ - was coincidental,” he really has to be kidding!

He didn’t realise it was Holy Week? He forgot? I wish people would at least be honest… Is that too much to ask?

But I'm equally dis-satisfied with the attitude of the Catholic League. Their spokeswoman says:

"They would never dare do something similar with a chocolate statue of the Prophet Mohammed naked with his genitals exposed during Ramadan."

True enough. But if the issue is the showing of genitals, then they have no grounds for objection. Criminals were crucified naked, without a loincloth. One of the main theological motifs of the crucifixion is its offence - the symbol of a humiliated God who was stripped of all dignity and still died forgiving. The loincloth is a symbol of human inability to face up to that.

Chocolate Jesus

Artist, Cosimo Caravallo, has created a life-size crucified naked Jesus
made from chocolate, titled My Sweet Lord. It’s to be exhibited from 2 April in the Lab Gallery at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York.

The sculpture has attracted criticism, both from critics and from religious groups such as the Catholic League, which has called for a boycott of the gallery and hotel.

It’s unclear to me precisely what the Catholic League find offensive, even after reading their website. It might be that Jesus is naked on the cross, without a loincloth, but this is historically accurate. The humiliation of nakedness was part of the punishment.

It could be that the League views the very idea of a chocolate Jesus artwork as offensive in itself, but why that should be is hard to explain. Trivial and stupid perhaps, but not offensive.

Apparently Caravallo has invited members of the public to eat the statue at a certain point, but this invitation has only recently been made and can’t be the reason for objection.

The exhibition has been timed to open during Holy Week, which is an obvious provocation. I suppose it makes me suspect the motives of the artist. It looks like a cheap shot at publicity. He no doubt hopes that shock value might get more people through the gallery doors and get him in the public eye. I don’t find that kind of thing offensive, only pathetic.

The gallery’s Creative Director Matt Semler says, ''The sign of any great artist is how their work affects the observer." It’s that word “how” that’s the key. If it merely offends people’s beliefs, or if it gives viewers the impression of a publicity stunt, I don’t how that’s any sign of a great work of art.

So what is the point of it? I guess ideas like society's over-indulgence, faith (or perhaps postmodern art? heh heh) as transient commodity, religion as a sugar-coated pill etc might be banded about as giving meaning to the piece. But such labels are just psuedo-intellectual commentary. Looking at the picture at the link, and trying to imagine it real-size, I can’t say it says much to me.