r3ckon
Fjord was right
Daily Archives: January 21, 2010
Ralph Gibson Photography
Ralph Gibson (b. Jan 16, 1939) is an American photographer who often strays over into the erotic, whether for commercial work, or in the traditional art nude genre, as above
Go here for George Eastman House collection; 201 images (some surprisingly pornographic)
via Ordinary Finds
Poets Hitchhiking on the Highway
Allen Ginsberg at that same ‘Beatnik party’ in Chicago, Ill., October 1959 – his hand is fondling the dog Corso is feeding cookies to
(Good art on that wall!)
(Photo: Francis Miller, LIFE)
Gregory Corso w/ milk, cookies, dog & the hand of Allen Ginsberg
(Photo, cropped – Francis Miller, Chicago 1959 – LIFE)
Poets Hitchhiking on the Highway
Of course I tried to tell him
but he cranked his head
without an excuse.
I told him the sky chases
the sun
And he smiled and said:
‘What’s the use.’
I was feeling like a demon
again
So I said: ‘But the ocean chases
the fish.’
This time he laughed
and said: ‘Suppose the
strawberry were
pushed into a mountain.’
After that I knew the
war was on
So we fought:
He said: ‘The apple-cart like a
broomstick-angel
snaps & splinters
old dutch shoes.’
I said: ‘Lightning will strike the old oak
and free the fumes!’
He said: ‘Mad street with no name.’
I said: ‘Bald killer! Bald killer! Bald killer!’
He said, getting real mad,
‘Firestoves! Gas! Couch!’
I said, only smiling,
‘I know God would turn back his head
if I sat quietly and thought.’
We ended by melting away,
hating the air!
Gregory Corso at a poetry reading, 1959 (Photo: Francis Miller, LIFE)
Perhaps he read them this one, from Gasoline
Last Night I Drove a Car
Last night I drove a car
not knowing how to drive
not owning a car
I drove and knocked down
people I loved
went 120 through one town.
and slept in the back seat
excited about my new life.
Shotgun Paintings (Video)
During his later years in Kansas, Burroughs also developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of, and some distance from, blank canvasses, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shot gun. These splattered canvasses were shown in at least one New York City gallery in the early 1990s.
In an interview with Gregory Ego, entitled William Burroughs & the Flicker Machine, as published in David Kerekes 2003 Headpress (the journal of sex religion death), William explains how he made ths shotgun art painting, and others.
Heres is an excerpt from the interview:
EGO: Are you still doing your shotgun art?
BURROUGHS: Oh, all kinds. Brushwork. Shotgun. Paint. Knife.
EGO: What exact process do you use for your visual art?
BURROUGHS: There is no exact process. If you want to do shotgun art, you take a piece of plywood, put a can of spracy paint in front of it, and shoot it with a shotgun or high powered rifle. The paints under high pressure so it explodes! Throws the can 300 feed. The paint sprays in exploding color across your surface. You can have as many colors as you want. Turn it around, do it sideways, and have one color coming in from this side and this side. Of course, they hit. Mix in all kinds of unpredictable patterns. This is related to Pollacks drip canvases, although this is a rather more basically random process, theres no possibility of predicting what patterns youre going to get.
Ive had some Ive worked over for months. Get the original after the explosions and work it over with brushes and spray paints and silhouettes until Im satisfied. So, there isnt any set procedure. Sometimes you get it right there and you dont touch it. The most important thing in painting is to know when to stop, when everything is finished. Doesnt mean anything in writing. EGO: It does rely to a high degree on chance the shotgun art? BURROUGHS: It introduces a random factor, certainly. EGO: Just like the cut-up method. BURROUGHS: Yes. But you dont have to use it all, you can use that as background. Therere a lot of other randomizing procedures like marbling. Take water and spray your paint on top of the water and then put your paper or whatever in the water and pull it out and it sticks in all sorts of random patterns. And then theres the old inkblot. [Ruffles imaginary paper] Like that. Sometimes theyre good only as background or sometimes you get a picture that youre satisfied with at once. There is no certain procedure. EGO: Allen Ginsberg proposed to me that the cut-up technique you developed with Brion Gysin is a sort of counter-brainwashing technique. Do you agree with that? BURROUGHS: It has that aspect in that you’re breaking down the word, you’re creating new words. Right as soon as you start cutting, you’re getting new words, new combinations of words. Yes, it has that aspect, sure.
via shihlunTW
Ive had some Ive worked over for months. Get the original after the explosions and work it over with brushes and spray paints and silhouettes until Im satisfied. So, there isnt any set procedure. Sometimes you get it right there and you dont touch it. The most important thing in painting is to know when to stop, when everything is finished. Doesnt mean anything in writing. EGO: It does rely to a high degree on chance the shotgun art? BURROUGHS: It introduces a random factor, certainly. EGO: Just like the cut-up method. BURROUGHS: Yes. But you dont have to use it all, you can use that as background. Therere a lot of other randomizing procedures like marbling. Take water and spray your paint on top of the water and then put your paper or whatever in the water and pull it out and it sticks in all sorts of random patterns. And then theres the old inkblot. [Ruffles imaginary paper] Like that. Sometimes theyre good only as background or sometimes you get a picture that youre satisfied with at once. There is no certain procedure. EGO: Allen Ginsberg proposed to me that the cut-up technique you developed with Brion Gysin is a sort of counter-brainwashing technique. Do you agree with that? BURROUGHS: It has that aspect in that you’re breaking down the word, you’re creating new words. Right as soon as you start cutting, you’re getting new words, new combinations of words. Yes, it has that aspect, sure.
But remember that all this brainwashing and propaganda, etc., is not by any means expected to reach any intelligent corners. It isnt expected to convince anybody that has any sense. If they can get ten percent, thats good. Thats the aim of propaganda; to get
ten percent. Theyre not trying to convince people that have a grain of sense.
r3ckon 