1) AVANTGARDEN
(Agitprop for the Ministry of Assumption)
October 2004
12 x 18" / an edition of 35
PRINT: letterpress [lead & wood type/ borders/ ephemera]This is an artifact of propaganda from the world of Mister Wryly Tommyrot, a fictional guerilla restaurateur with a prix forcZŘ menu and a Futurist palate. It remains one of my more playful prints in regard to content, but stylistically, it partially signifies the foundation of my typographical interests and aesthetics. At the time, F.T. Marinetti of the Italian Futurist movement was my primary fascination. He proposed a revolution amidst and within all catefories of artistic creation, which was especially significant to me, as the walls separating my interests in typography and poetics had begun to fall. I attempted to instill a sense of Marinetti's bawdy persona and self-amused wordplay into my own words, as well as to suggest just a hint of the visual chaos and 'modern colors' found in his prints. This was my first independently produced broadside.
2) Junk as a Series of Misunderstandings
November 2004
11 x 8" / an edition of 35
BOOK: bound with bolts/ digitally printed/ 34 pagesAs with AVANTGARDEN, the manufacturing of this book was inspired by my continued exposure to Italian Futurism, though this time around, the work produced as much represents a critique of as homage to the movement. Though the Futurists were empowered by their manifestos of a mechanized future, they failed to observe the potential excess (junk) that would inevitably be discarded in the name of progress. I spent seven consecutive Sundays walking the 12 long aisles of vendors at the local Oakland swap meet, attempting to consciously survey the various remnants of discard. I included in my findings more abstract observations: the multitude of languages and dialects as 'junk,' and the snacks and beverages sold as 'junk,' among others. I formed my notes into a series of poems, preceded by a quote from Marinetti. I bound the collection in the manner of the Futurists: two stainless steel bolts along the spine of what would otherwise be identified as a Japanese stab-binding or screw-post binding.
3) transferred throat
(In collaboration with Edwin Torres)
February 2006
14.5 x 22" / an edition of 60
PRINT: letterpress [polymer plates/ lead type/ a plank of wood]Working as a representative for Eucalyptus Press at Mills College, I contacted Edwin Torres concerning the prospect of producing a broadside of his work to be sold and displayed at his on-campus reading. Previous Teaching Assistants for Eucalyptus Press had collaborated with visiting writers on dozens of occasions, but generally the process involved obtaining a poem or excerpt, typesetting it as presented by the writer, and adding an image and/ or some decorative motif(s). But from our initial contact, Edwin Torres and I began to build the structure for a more active and involved collaboration. He relinquished to me twenty pages of an unpublished manuscript, allowing me to excerpt, rearrange, and recontextualize at will, with the understanding that I would be doing so after much deliberation and discussion. We exchanged drafts, debated color choices and scale renderings, and we went to press. I perceive the success of the piece to be my ability to visually demonstrate his work as well as my reaction to it.
4) Animal Collective 3.5.6
February 2006
18.5 x 26" / an edition of 3
PRINT: letterpress [lead & wood type/ planks of wood/ found triangular wood shards]Commissioned by The Fillmore, this print was a deliberate attempt to depict a visual counterpart to and for the music of Brooklyn based band, Animal Collective. The conscious elements are psychedelia, 'organic' materials (wood shards and planks) unnaturally rendered (synthetic, bright) hues, and hand-tampered details applied to concrete forms. When teaching workshops on tampering with type, I use this print to demonstrate the results of various hand-inking methods, as well as the effects of using materials such as cloth, sandpaper, sponges and palette knives to create patterns and texture on the surface of the type.
5) Lost Brief Case Conjecture
(In Collaboration with Joan Retallack)
October 2006
9 x 21" / an edition of 50
PRINT: letterpress [polymer plates/ lead type]Once again acting as a representative for Eucalyptus Press, I collaborated with Joan Retallack on the occasion of her reading at Mills College. The collaboration was not nearly as involved as it had been with Edwin Torres, and her typographic style, while being radical in its own right, is (intentionally) less exaggerated than my own. But the process was very similar to my previous collaboration where the dialogue of drafts was concerned. Though perhaps not as strongly as transferred throat, I still believe this piece conveys the tension and discourse between writer and typographer.
6) AUTOGRAPHOGRAPHY
May 2006
7 x 8.75" / an edition of 20
BOOK: hand-sewn, multi-signature binding/ digitally printed, 167 pages, an edition of 20The content for this book was collected and formed over the duration of my MFA in Poetics at Mills College. As my thesis, it represents the culmination of my academic experience in typography and poetics. It consists of two prefatory essays, which attempt to contextualize the proceeding work as exercises in language, structure, and style, rather than poems or typographic arrangements. Following the essays, are seven Memoranda of such exercises, each with a different rhetoric and visual tone. The spreads are as deliberately designed as the individual pages: no page stands alone. For that reason, I submitted AUTOGRAPHOGRAPHY as a bound book, although the thesis parameters dictate 8.5 x 11" loose sheets, unbound, with specific margins maintained. For me, this was an unavoidable act of disobedience, as I insist that the book structure, as much as the pagination & individual page design, are inextricable from the presentation of the work. They are the work. In an age where the categorical nature of things has begun to deteriorate, rhetorically speaking, I find it important, if not entirely necessary, to pay attention to these categorical shifts, and perhaps, to aid in the shifting.
7) Man In The Poetic Mode
(For PLASTIQUE: A Gallery of Poetics)
October 2006
INSTALLATION: iron vice/ antique table/ machinist bolt/ found & altered books on & of poeticsThis work represents a foray into the territory of altered books, an uncharted region for me. I wanted to create something of an assemblage/ shrine in honor (albeit, ironic) of the current state of poetry at large. Using a variety of, what I perceive to be, outdated books on or of poetics, I went to work drilling, cutting, and reworking. The piece consists of a series of such texts under duress: bolted shut, locked in a vice, stripped of their pages & replaced with a two-faced mask for content (man trapped inside the book (i.e. bound). I've struggled with this piece, as it doesnt attempt to be as subtle with regard to concept as much of my other work, and yet, at the reception for the opening of PLASTIQUE, I received more inquires and conjectures concerning the nature of this 'book' than I've received in regard to any other. It seemed to be visually involving in such a way as to invite an audience into a more cross-genre discussion, ultimately creating and advocating an atmosphere of multi-media dialogue, wherein Book Arts is included.
8) Auto Type #1
March 2007
8.5 x 5.5" / an edition of 60
PRINT: letterpress [lead & wood type/ furniture/ polymer plate]This print is the first in a newly planned series. Each one is intended to emphasize different experiments of technique & form, in conjunction with the placement of an image of a particular object meant to compliment the otherwise text based design. The object then acts as a signifier for the piece itself, though the text will always be some contortion of "AUTO TYPE."
In this particular Auto Type, a primary goal was to combat the 'tyranny of lead' by creating a malleable chase from bent leads in order to print the word "TYPE" in a curvilinear fashion. As for the signifying image in this piece, I chose a 'pennyfarthing,' or Highwheel Bicycle, which I attempt to emulate through the use of curved typesetting and dramatic type-size contrast, realized through a left to right reading. In this case, perhaps the image speaks more clearly than the description.
9) Global Warming #1
April 2007
9.25 X 3.5" / an edition of 60
PRINT: letterpress [lead & wood type/ furniture/ polymer plate]The first in a series of AgitProp AUTO TYPE(s).
10) Global Warming #2
May 2007
8.5 x 5.5" / an edition of 60
PRINT: letterpress [lead & wood type/ furniture/ polymer plate]The second installment in the AgitProp AUTO TYPE(s) series.
11) An assortment of work, pending further description
2007/2008 (Prints produced at The Center for Book Arts, New York City)
the road to help (with David Lehman) [edition of 100]
Poverty Press: articles 1 & 2 [editions of 60 or so]
NEW! (advertisement for www.newnewnewnew.com) [edition of 100]
Penelope's Shield / webeyeweaver (commissioned by The Best of American Poetry, poetry contest)