bLOGOS/HA HA: Octopus 19: Ventriloquy || Gertrude Contemporary

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

31 May 2019

Octopus 19: Ventriloquy || Gertrude Contemporary

bLOGOS/HA HA has long been interested in ventriloquism. In the Mystery of God's Voice projected ] without movement of lips ( through

us, Imago Dei, His Creature Screens.

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GERTRUDE CONTEMPORARY
Octopus 19 : Ventriloquy
Curated by Joel Stern

Initiated in 2001, the Octopus series of exhibitions supports ambitious curatorial practice, through engaging an invited curator annually to develop a project that draws upon their research interests and provides a platform for new forms of exhibition making. In 2019 Gertrude is delighted to be working with Joel Stern.

Opening : Friday 31 May, 6pm - 8pm

Gertrude Contemporary || 21-31 High Street, Preston South

Exhibition Dates : 1 June - 20 July

Anarchronism Effects : Opening weekend performance program

Performance Dates : Saturday 1 June, 2-4pm

Gertrude Contemporary || 21-31 High Street, Preston South

This performance program, Anarchronism Effects, explores the way ventriloquy performs a dislocation of body from voice in time and in space. The program borrows its title from scholar Sarah Kessler's research into 'ventriloquial materiality' and ventriloquism's "enduring anachronism—its at once anticipatory and antiquated appearance." Anarchronism Effects features new performances created for Octopus 19: Ventriloquy by Ash Kilmartin | Mel Deerson and Briony Galligan | Melody Paloma | MP Hopkins.

Ash Kilmartin will perform You, as a paragraph, a monologue for mediated voice, engaging the ventriloquial tropes of possession, dislocation, and the excessive physicality of (the at times seemingly autonomous and absurd) speaking voice.

Melody Paloma will de- and re-code a suite of Code Poems by Hannah Weiner, master ventriloquist and psychic host to corporeal and non-corporeal bodies alike, in collaboration with retired seafarers Neil Butt and Leigh Webster.

Mel Deerson and Briony Galligan will traverse the theater curtain separating heaven from hell.

MP Hopkins will read through himself some texts about speaking/voice/language and hear himself doing this reading to himself.

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ventriLOGOS/HA HA

plus a few things from the Puppet Culture heap