Project with Brody Neuenschwander
Date
April 22 – 26, 2009
About project
Brody Neuenschwander is a calligrapher and text artist whose work explores the boundaries between text and image. In many of his collages and large painted works image and text merge into one another, suggesting that the two may be read according to the same set of rules. Other works contradict this very idea, suggesting that there may be no way of reconciling these two fundamental ways of reading the world.
Walking poems. Brody Neuenschwander’s idea is to commission several of Lithuanian best writers to compose poems, essays and short stories. New texts are essential. Can be from literature students at university as well. Each writer has a colour.
T-shirts in that colour are printed with sections of the text and a big
number to say which section. So, for example, artists have Author XXX. Her shirts are bright green. She has written a poem with 12 stanzas. Each
stanza is printed on one green shirt, with a big number for the stanza.
Twelve shirts in total for Author XXX. The main idea is to find 12 people who will wear these shirts around Vilnius for a year. At the end of the year, the whole poem can be published in book form.
Here is the homework for the workshop:
Think of a very important experience in your life, one that is still very much alive in your thoughts. Write a journal entry of about 100 words from the following points of view:
Date
April 22 – 26, 2009
About project
Brody Neuenschwander is a calligrapher and text artist whose work explores the boundaries between text and image. In many of his collages and large painted works image and text merge into one another, suggesting that the two may be read according to the same set of rules. Other works contradict this very idea, suggesting that there may be no way of reconciling these two fundamental ways of reading the world.
Walking poems. Brody Neuenschwander’s idea is to commission several of Lithuanian best writers to compose poems, essays and short stories. New texts are essential. Can be from literature students at university as well. Each writer has a colour.
T-shirts in that colour are printed with sections of the text and a big
number to say which section. So, for example, artists have Author XXX. Her shirts are bright green. She has written a poem with 12 stanzas. Each
stanza is printed on one green shirt, with a big number for the stanza.
Twelve shirts in total for Author XXX. The main idea is to find 12 people who will wear these shirts around Vilnius for a year. At the end of the year, the whole poem can be published in book form.
Here is the homework for the workshop:
Think of a very important experience in your life, one that is still very much alive in your thoughts. Write a journal entry of about 100 words from the following points of view:
1. Someone else connected to the experience
2. The person you love most
3. A person you have never met - imagine they heard about the experience on the news
4. A historical figure 5. Your point of view as you present it to the public 6. Your own point of view as you tell it to yourself (You may alter the points of view if you have some other ideas)
For example, if I were to recall the birth of my daughter (very important, to say the least), I would write six journal entries about that experience.
2. The person you love most
3. A person you have never met - imagine they heard about the experience on the news
4. A historical figure 5. Your point of view as you present it to the public 6. Your own point of view as you tell it to yourself (You may alter the points of view if you have some other ideas)
For example, if I were to recall the birth of my daughter (very important, to say the least), I would write six journal entries about that experience.
These might be the six points of view:
1. The nurse attending the birth
2. My daughter or my wife
3. A woman in Africa
4. The first of my family to go to America 5. To the public I said it was a wonderful experience 6. To myself I admitted being scared of becoming a parent
1. The nurse attending the birth
2. My daughter or my wife
3. A woman in Africa
4. The first of my family to go to America 5. To the public I said it was a wonderful experience 6. To myself I admitted being scared of becoming a parent
Step two of homework:
Find (in magazines, internet, whatever) or make (crude drawings, paintings, sketches, collages, whatever) at least three illustrations or images for each of the six short stories.
Photos or other material can be (these are just a few possibilities)
1. Reframed, cut, deconstructed, reassembled 2. Repainted, precisely, impressionistically, etc. 3. Drawn in a calligraphic style or other pen style 4. Posterized in same or other colors: a touch of the button on the computer 5. Collage of various fragments of different images to produce one whole 6. An image of a bird can be replace by the word BIRD in an appropriate style or just neutral type 7. Letter-composition like Miro’s drawings of faces using letterforms 8. Lots more. Look in manuals in illustration.
Find (in magazines, internet, whatever) or make (crude drawings, paintings, sketches, collages, whatever) at least three illustrations or images for each of the six short stories.
Photos or other material can be (these are just a few possibilities)
1. Reframed, cut, deconstructed, reassembled 2. Repainted, precisely, impressionistically, etc. 3. Drawn in a calligraphic style or other pen style 4. Posterized in same or other colors: a touch of the button on the computer 5. Collage of various fragments of different images to produce one whole 6. An image of a bird can be replace by the word BIRD in an appropriate style or just neutral type 7. Letter-composition like Miro’s drawings of faces using letterforms 8. Lots more. Look in manuals in illustration.
This is a lot of homework, but it will certainly help during the week.
Even if you can only get one illustration per story, that’s enough to work on.
Bring the six stories and all the illustrations to the workshop, along with the following materials:
DEVELOPING MEANING MATERIALS LIST
Variety of pens and brushes for formal and expressive writing Drawing tools such as pencils and graphite sticks Gouache, brushes, water pot, palette Black ink Ruler, scissors, cutting knife, glue stick
11 x 17 layout or practice pad 8 sheets good quality paper (roughly 50 x 70 cm) good for calligraphy and a good weight for books (i.e. maximum weight 220 gm).
The six texts
The illustrations to the texts
Even if you can only get one illustration per story, that’s enough to work on.
Bring the six stories and all the illustrations to the workshop, along with the following materials:
DEVELOPING MEANING MATERIALS LIST
Variety of pens and brushes for formal and expressive writing Drawing tools such as pencils and graphite sticks Gouache, brushes, water pot, palette Black ink Ruler, scissors, cutting knife, glue stick
11 x 17 layout or practice pad 8 sheets good quality paper (roughly 50 x 70 cm) good for calligraphy and a good weight for books (i.e. maximum weight 220 gm).
The six texts
The illustrations to the texts
Project cosist of:
Workshop
Open lectures
Final results presentation
