new art writing

A Rainbow Reader is a work of creative non-fiction which looks at colour from the personal perspective of Tessa Laird, an artist, writer and lecturer based in New Zealand.
'In 2009, Tessa Laird began investigating the (r)evolutionary power of colour, from a personal, and political, transformative angle. A Rainbow Reader is the result of that study. Consisting of six chapters, one on each spectral hue, colour becomes a catalyst for speculative writing encompassing art history, literary criticism, personal anecdote, philosophy and anthropology. Each chapter of A Rainbow Reader is bound in the appropriately coloured card; together, the six chapters form a rainbow spine and operate as a kind of edition-based artwork, a veritable rainbow on your bookshelf.' (notes from the publisher)

A Rainbow Reader is published by Auckland-based art books press Clouds. Further information - here.

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The Dark Horsey Form Guide, Archive & Punter's Companion
Critical writing by Ken Bolton

METHOD FOR FORM'S SAKE

Sarah crowEST — A Serious Of Objects — Australian Experimental Art Foundation, May 22nd—June 28th
Sam Howie — Survey — and Return Threshold—Patrick Hartigan, Michelle Nikou, Marcin Kobylecki, Charlie Sofo—Fontanelle, May 18th—June 8th
Peter Atkins — Silence — and James Guerts—Topography Of Water—Greenaway Art Gallery, May 28th—June 22nd
Juz Kitson — Still Life: Sleep of non-being — Greenaway Art Gallery, June 25th—July 25th
Joe Felber — Kontaktraum : Auslander (space of contact—foreigner)— Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, June 13th—July 13th

Download pdf here.
Earlier Form Guides available here

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It's impossible to synthesise or to summarise the extraordinary poetic poeises of the last couple of weeks. It began with the CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S WRITING AND ENVIRONMENTS conference at the State Library in Melbourne, Victoria from the 3rd until 5th July comprising dozens of brilliant contributions and five great keynote speakers Chris Kraus, Lyn Hejinian, Alexis Wright, Kate Rigby & Deborah Bird Rose.
See the entire program here.

Immediately following the Melbourne conference, EXPERIMENTAL, convened by Associate Professor Kate Lilley, Director of Creative Writing at the English Department, University of Sydney, began on Sunday July 6th with a mistress class by Carla Harryman and continued the following morning with an official program that can be viewed here.

The information -
Join us for a pre-symposium reading at Gleebooks on June 30th, 6 for 6.30pm with Pam Brown, John Tranter and John Wilkinson.

This exciting 2 day symposium on experimental writing and poetics features Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian and Barrett Watten, three of the most significant and influential architects of the movement which has come to be known as Language writing, live and in person. The important English poet-critic, John Wilkinson, will also give a keynote reading. A fantastic lineup of participants from around Australia includes: Pam Brown, Andy Carruthers, Kate Fagan, Toby Fitch, Anna Gibbs, Ross Gibson, Melissa Hardie, Luke Harley, Martin Harrison, Fiona Hile, Eddie Hopely, Ella O’Keefe, Astrid Lorange, Kate Lilley, Philip Mead, Peter Minter, Sam Moginie, Gig Ryan, Chris Rudge, Ann Vickery, Corey Wakeling and Jess Wilkinson.

The Symposium will end with a celebratory reading at Sappho Books, 51 Glebe Point Rd, Sydney, July 8, 7pm.

L t R : Karen Sonnenschein, Pam Brown, Nola Farman, Kate Lilley, Lyn Hejinian
& Carla Harryman at Sappho's (foto by Luke Harley)

Kate Lilley & Barrett Watten at Sappho's (foto by Luke Harley)

Lyn Hejinian heard by Astrid Lorange, University of Western Sydney

On Wednesday 9th July Kate Fagan, poet and Lecturer in Literary Studies at the Writing & Society Research Centre,University of Western Sydney hosted a reading and conversation with Lyn Hejinian. Lyn read 'Lola' a chapbook segment from her book Saga/ Circus and a selection from her latest book The Book of a Thousand Eyes. After morning tea, Lyn Hejinian and Kate Fagan conducted a fascinating conversation with participation from the audience.
There are more photos of this event here and here's my photo of one member of the audience, poet and recent PhD recipient, Andy (Ampersandy) Carruthers :

& here's Ampersandy's photo of me talking with blurry Sam Moginie & Ella O'Keefe at the same event:

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