12/12/2014
Plastic Words
Raven Row, London
Six weeks to a series of public events that mined the contested space between contemporary literature and art. The participants are leading writers, visual and performance artists who reflected on the forms of writing and art making.
Organised by John Douglas Millar, David Musgrave, Luke Skrebowski, Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams.
Raven Row played host for six weeks to a series of public events that mined the contested space between contemporary literature and art.
Taking this space as a starting point, the participants – including leading writers, visual and performance artists – reflected on the possible overlaps, parallels, tangents and interferences between some of today’s most adventurous forms of writing and art making. The variety of formats reflected the diversity of the contributors, spanning readings, performances, panel discussions and publishing experiments.
A companion display curated by Antony Hudek, Marginalia, comprised of artworks by Eleanor Antin, Isidore Isou, John Murphy and Philippe Thomas.
At each event, the pop-up bookshop Luminous Books presented a selection of titles written by and related to the speakers in Plastic Words and will hosted a selection of artist novels curated by The Book Lovers, a research project by David Maroto and Joanna Zielinska. For the final event in the series, Luminous Books joined forces with print-on-demand publishers Publication Studio, for its first London appearance.
Image: Isidore Isou reading his manifesto of cultural and meca-aesthetical wrapping (Œuvre d’anti-emballage et de super-emballage, 1985) on the Pont-Neuf, Paris, on 26 May 1987. Photographer unknown. Courtesy and copyright: Archives Eric Fabre
Opening Event: Verbalations Saturday 13 December 2014
Raven Row
56 Artillery Lane London E1 7LS
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 11am–6pm