I’m taking part in Strong Language, part of Off the Shelf festival in Sheffield. Curated by Tim Etchells, Strong Language takes place over three days – 12-14 October – and includes readings, performances, projections, installations, and discussions by and with a fantastic group of writers, artists, and publishers.
Last night at Site Gallery, I read a new short story of mine, alongside readings from Tim, M John Harrison, Courttia Newland and Tony White. Alongside the live events, my new work In Eyes and Hands – a series of text projections – is being projected large scale onto the side of Sheffield’s Graves Gallery on Tudor Square. The work is on 8-10pm.
In Eyes and Hands summons human experiences, conditions, and states of mind via a collection of commonplace idioms featuring objects, animals, and elements of nature placed inside, on top of, or around, various parts of the human body. Creating a picture of humanity that shifts between the comical, the grotesque, and the poetic, the text is a surprising and playful compendium that moves from ’time on your hands’ and ‘frog in your throat’ to ‘hat in your hand’ and ‘wool over your eyes.’ As the work unfolds, the phrases are remixed to create a nonsensical list of images which re-imagine the body and its relation to the physical world.
Here are some phone pics from last night: