Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Artist Book: Object Poem: Transcripts of Waiting for Godot written in reverse in black ink.

Title page: Ink and collage

Samuel Beckett's absurdest play Waiting for Godot was a play that sat on the shelves of my childhood home as part of my eldest brothers senior years of English and Drama studies. I was always curious about the title. It seemed to evoke a certain sense of obscurity without ever opening the cover. As a teenager I recall having attempted to read it but the seemingly trivial dialogue and impossible narrative made little connection. In 1981 I had the opportunity to discover a more poignant connection with 'Godot' as I attended an amateur performance in Dublin during a year of hitch-hiking in Europe. Although after a complete night of drinking with some of the cast after the performance in several Dublin bars the play remained as vague as ever. These transcripts written in reverse are not about finding meaning in 'Godot' but are more concerned with an interest in text and in particular how the text of a play establishes a certain thought-space, or liminal space within a continuum of  references between language, performance and the play as a book form.   



Text: pages14-15

Writing instruments: wire strands bound with tape.

6 comments:

  1. what a feral thought & image!

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  2. mo has the right word. feral is how they look.

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  4. perhaps that is what a doctorate does to you.

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  5. Waiting for Godot didn't sink in until I was an adult. Your work and printing implements make it even more interesting. Wonder.

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  6. those who achieve penultimate degrees go feral? love it. i particularly love the writing tools...a few years back i made ink brushes out of turkey beards. i left them in melbourne.

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