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Field Guide to Experimental Irish Literature at Irish Arts Centre, NYC

Earlier this year I contributed an excerpt from my new long poem 'Capital' (the full poem will be published in the forthcoming Dublin edition in the Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities series of anthologies) to the Field Guide to Experimental Irish Literature, a project and exhibition by New York artist Dannielle Tegeder in the Irish Arts Center in New York City.

For this project, subtitled 'Drawing Room' and active 11 January - 7 April 2019, "Dannielle Tegeder reached out to select contemporary Irish poets, asking them to contribute a work of theirs, in some way evoking or thematically related to Ireland. Using sheets of archival paper printed with these pieces, Tegeder has begun - and will continue - responding to their words through abstract drawing and collage. The exhibition will have several different iterations, changing and evolving as new collaborations between artist and poet emerge.

"Tegeder found inspiration for this abstracted anthology of experimental Irish poetry through artists including Tristan Tzara (particularly his unrealized DadaGlobe); John Cage; poet Frank O'Hara and his collaborations with visual artists; and the 1967 MCA Chicago exhibition Pictures to be Read/Poetry to be Seen. Rather than a static exhibition, Tegeder has created a living cross-disciplinary conversation, between visual art and poetry. Tegeder's process of reaching out to writers, asking for work, and bringing viewers together in conversation about Ireland - and how it's represented through various poetic voices - are part of the exhibition itself. Drawing Room began with the display of eight works responding to Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon's "Ireland." Next, Tegeder will layer in works responding to poems by Sligo-based poet Alice Lyons and Cork-based poet Feargal Gaynor; before the exhibition's closing, it will encompass responses to the words of seven poets in total including Christodoulos Makris, Mike McCormack, Vona Groarke and Maighread Medbh."

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Having discussed with Dannielle the nature and focus of her project, which promised to encompass much of what appeals to me when it comes to an experimental, cross-disciplinary collaboration, I agreed to contribute material so she can derange and reinterpret it at her pleasure. I am in anticipation to hear about and view the results of her treatment of this material. Any and all updates will be documented here and in subsequent posts as she makes them available to me.

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