A note on : Worm Wood with tereza stehlikova

Into our fifth year of collaboration, Tereza Stehlikova and I will be screening our film WORM WOOD at the end of January 2020 at Whitechapel Gallery cinema. In light of that we are filming plenty now. http://www.stevenjfowler.com/wormwood

Began in 2015, Worm Wood has taken in publication, exhibition, event and the film, but really its about our collaboration and the levels on which that operates as something of a friendship expression / pedagogy / open method. We have just improvised our way, without end goal, without conclusion in mind or narrative, for years.

I suppose its about the industrial and reclusive landscapes of these areas of London, a place that is not obsessed with itself. And how they are changing as the massive new old oak development has come in and begins to grow and terraform a beautiful ugly place into something ugly ugly new plastic shiny glass and valuable.

Tereza wrote a typically elegant piece on our latest filming day also on our site https://cinestheticfeasts.com/2019/11/04/wormwood-car-giant/

“It’s a Sunday, a rainy afternoon in November. Rather than a Sunday roast, Steve and I opt for roaming the liminal landscapes of Willesden Junction, our old trusted friend. It’s unpretentious spirit offers us great sense of solitude, with no pressure to know what we want, be goal oriented, be professional. Here we are, free.

It’s a year 2019 already, and back in the Car Giant’s territories, Steve and I have been fortunate to discover the entrance into the otherworldly Giant’s Diner. What joy! Steve appears ecstatic as he rushes into the doorway!

I follow him eagerly up the glowing staircase, a ship about to be launched into space. Soon enough, having entered what could be a new Punchdrunk set, I expect alternative realities behind every door. The universe here is plastic, blue, resembling the anonymous non-places of ferries, airports and train stations. Where are we sailing off to?”

A note on : Norwegian boat tour reviewed by Maria Malinovskaya

Not so much a review as a travelogue, the quite astounding and idiosyncratic and powerful Russian poet, my friend, and one of those on the tour itself, Maria Malinovskaya, wrote a small piece on a recent project I curated. The Nordic Poetry Festival : Norway http://www.cirkolimp-tv.ru/articles/882/kamarade-v-norvegii

It’s so worth a read, if you read Russian, I bet. But also in English, via the translation software, for it makes its own poetry, does this bot. This is not what she wrote in Russian of course, but some tasty google translate morsels, about me, if I may be so indulgent to indulge:

“There, in his scarlet trousers, red shoes and a green jacket with two badges made in the USSR, Stephen Fowler met us, who arrived, of course, before everyone else. When I think about this person and especially when I see him, the clean and cold energy with which he does what he loves is surprising. He will never say compliments on duty, he will not smile simply because he needs to smile now, but at the same time he will find really important words for you as a participant in his festival. He doesn’t drink alcohol, in every new city he comes to, he tries first of all to run a cross - to feel people and a place, and if you forgot somewhere a package,………….

……. However, Stephen did not allow to celebrate the release of the book for a long time - ahead, despite the late time, there was perhaps the most exciting part of the festival, at least for me, was a boat trip from Aalesund to Bergen. “Don’t miss the boat for pictures”! - is heard on the documentary video made by Stephen, his voice when he, like chickens, drives us inside, and we resist and try to photograph the seven-decked ship outside. And even though it was already half past three in the night in small warm cabins, we all gathered in the hall, and the most daring, that is, Young and I, got out onto the open deck and swept along it, looking into the windows of the cabins. So, unexpectedly, behind one glass, we met none other than Stephen, who looked peacefully into the distance, talking on the phone,

The first half of the next day was to be held in rehearsals of the main event of the festival, but was held in solitary and joint contemplation of the fjords, lighthouses and rainbows from the ship. And, of course, in continuous photography. We had no idea that Stephen was filming a small documentary on his phone ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms8K87HEEMw ). But, perhaps, he did not suspect about this until the end of the festival. Sailing to Bergen, on the deck we talked about the success of the festival: Steven was pleased and worried. When there is a confrontation, it is clear where to move on, and when everything turns out, it is more difficult to force yourself to change something.

In Bergen, we had only an hour left before the performances. Someone especially stress-resistant managed to oversleep all this hour, someone rehearsed, someone procrastinated. I was rather the latter. Going to the window, I saw at the intersection of Stephen, who was running on the spot in anticipation of a green traffic light. It was raining, and people under umbrellas in coats and jackets looked curiously at the sweaty young man in a T-shirt, clearly breaking their slower daily rhythm. At this moment, despite the excitement, I realized that everything is fine and right, and will be so until the end……….

………..Needless to say, two documentary poets were again on the same flight, now Bergen - Amsterdam, only one after the transfer went to Dublin, and the other to Moscow. Three wonderful books flew with me - Christodulus Makris, Stephen Fowler and David Spittle. And also - one of Stephen’s two Soviet badges, removed from his jacket and pinned to mine. I think this is what will now accompany me on different poetic readings and remind me that they can be like that.”

A note on : Yellow Book Exhibition at Westminster Library

Happy to be part of this group exhibition at Westminster Library just literally on Leicester sq amazingly, behind the National Gallery. It’s an amazing space and holds a grand collection, and thanks to curators Astra Papachristodoulou and Lisa Kiew, I am one of around ten poet-artists who have been asked to respond to the Yellow Book.

The Yellow Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Book was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897

My work is about Aubrey Beardsley writing about Salome whacking off a unicorn and Joris Karl Huysmans fake occult sexyness in one of my favourite of his books La Bas. It’s a poem brut piece, writing in indian ink with poundland yellow paint.

Very good to be along friends and peers like Imogen Reid, Karen Sandhu, Luke Thompson et al. Check it out, it runs

November 1st to 27th 2019
Westminster Reference Library
https://www.westminster.gov.uk/library-opening-hours-and-contact-details#westminster-reference-library
35 St. Martin's Street, London, WC2H 7HP

A note on : Pictures from NEMESES launch by Madeleine Rose

some beautiful pictures by Madeleine Rose https://madeleinerose.photography of my selected collaborations launch this past saturday night from a windswept gothic st john on bethnal green church in east london.

the weird theatre magic of the night has been well captured in madeleine’s images, and im particularly happy to have these portraits of me and my collaborators / friends, and the animals i gave them in thanks too

https://www.haverthorn.com/books/nemeses-selected-collaborations-of-sj-fowler-volume-2

A note on : Poem Brut at Rich Mix #6 - November 9th

7.30pm - Free Entry - 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, Shoreditch, London E1 6LA = www.poembrut.com/richmix

New performances and commissions by Kathy Pendrill, Richard Marshall, Jacqueline Ennis Cole, Khaled Hakim, Lizzy Turner, Paul Hawkins, Martin Wakefield, Mischa Foster Poole, Saradha Soobrayen, SJ Fowler and Lisa Alexander.

Poem Brut explores the fundamental and innovative potential of what a live poem might be. It asks poets, writers and artists, working in their own traditions, to present new works, made for the night, as performance. These live poems might explore language against space, time, mess, colour, writing, speaking and moving. We aim to expand and embrace what a poem might be by exploring how the mind formulates the writing arts, engaging neurodiverse poets alongside those simply pushing against the walls of traditional literature.

The event will see the launch of Martin Wakefield’s Zugunruhe from Hesterglock Press alongside a launch for SJ Fowler’s selected collaborations 2014-2019 : Nemeses, from Haverthorn Press

In 2020, as Poem Brut enters it’s third phase, a new series of commissions will define the project, aiming to provide some of the UK’s most original poet-artists the opportunity to develop new pieces of work. Thanks to the Serendip Studio and Arts Council England, these commissions will not only explore the possibility of the handmade to create new ways to making, sharing, presenting and understanding literature, but will increasingly explore how our minds operate, and how our brains shape our writing and reading and performing and listening, and understanding. Poem Brut as an exploration of neuropoetics. The commissions are as open to the poets in form as they are in content. They support time for making, thinking, teaching or sharing. More to be announced in 2020 www.poembrut.com/commissions

A note on : Launching Nemeses at St John on Bethnal Green

I am well aware that no one will, but these performances are best watched in order, in their entirety. This is because this launch was really a kind of meta-play. It was a performance in the fuller sense, that I was messing with the audience through my collaborator Harry Man, who played an anti-host, who thought I was messing with him, who then messed with the other generous collaborators. The levels of messing, duckery, grew throughout the night, as a series of minor legit disasters built a paradoxical victory. I very very much enjoyed doing it, anyway. Each performance was grand to do, so much was improvised around plans. The texts worked out and to work with friends like this, its satisfying.

Basically I read with seven collaborations to launch my selected collaborations, NEMESES, which is absolutely beautiful. The book is so beautiful, Andrew Wells and Haverthorn have done an amazing job. And we were in an amazing gothic east london church during a rainstorm.

Published : Aaron Kent's Poetic Interviews with Broken Sleep

Happy to be in this unique anthology of poetry interviews, the book is immense, over 500 pages, so a bargain. Aaron created this out of the ether, an ambitious thing and we pinged back some interesting poems as questions and answers https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/poetic-interviews

“Poetic Interviews features fifty-five ‘Poetry interviews in the form of poetry’, eschewing the staid format of the plain text interview for something more radical. Poetic interviews began life as a blog and features interviews with diverse and illustrious figures such as Amanda Lovelace, Luke Kennard, Siddhartha Bose, George Szirtes and many more. An awe inspiring project that takes the heartbeat of a generation of poets.”

A note on : leading Korean Literature Night on The Autobiography of Death

A fascinating night just off Trafalgar sq at the Korean Cultural Centre in London. I was asked to lead a discussion of Kim Hyesoon’s Autobiography of Death. They have a unique system, where people apply for these nights, and they do a lottery where 15 people get picked randomly, and they get sent the book for free. So everyone feels like the recipient of fortune, and reads attentively, and turns up. And they don’t choose the book. I didn’t quite understand this going in, as it completely shaped the two hours I spent with these 15 human beings. / The book itself is remarkable, and I think I overegged the punch on my response to it, talking about the impossibility of conceiving death in language instead of asking whether people like poems for example? But maybe that’s good. I don’t know. Hope to do this again though, I learned more talking to people who don’t like poetry or don’t think about it rather, than I normally do talking to those who pretend to know etc.

A note on : silk and gold poems in Thomas Duggan's Tate St Ives exhibition

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/thomas-duggan-alchemy-art

My friend and collaborator Thomas Duggan has an exhibition / robotics installation at Tate St Ives which features two of our collaborations, both featured in my new book NEMESES

They are two poems, one printed in Silk and the other in Gold.

19 October – 3 November 2019 at 10.00–16.30

Thomas Duggan is an inventor who has a love of nature, design, materials, architecture, science, advanced generative design, technology, craft and robotic fabrication.

In this exclusive exhibition, Thomas Duggan presents new work alongside existing examples of his lifelong enquiry into process and invention.

A note on : Performing for Laszlo Moholy Nagy

I had the chance to moderate an event, and then perform a bit, celebrating one of my heros, Laszlo Moholy Nagy. His work and theory has underpinned a lot of my teaching, and then thinking, especially in being multi-medium with creative practise, and with photography and poetry. I had chanced across the Isokon gallery too, just on one of my huge london walkings, where he lived in London in 1935 to 1937. So to be asked to work alongside Valeria Carullo, who has written a book on that, was synchronicity on a few levels. I offered some opening remarks, Valeria spoke comprehensively, then I messed with a self-filming set up and read an adapted poem for Laszlo in London. I was trying to be playful while also referring to LMN’s obvious concerns and self-awareness. I was a little off I think, but it was a very worthwhile thing and I’m lucky to have been asked.

There was also this lovely write up of the event by Alison Miller http://ceel.org.uk/culture/review-hungarian-lit-night-moholy-nagy-in-britain-by-valeria-carullo-an-immersive-book-launch-at-the-hungarian-cultural-centre/

“In the two years László Moholy-Nagy lived in London (1935-1937), his creative energy and innovation were boundless. He charmed the British who warmed to his friendly, ebullient and witty character – ‘that lovely madman’. Poet Steven Fowler in opening the event said, ‘Everyone wants you to be one thing, go in a straight line, so if you’re a poet, a writer, a film-maker, a visual artist, a composition artist, an architectural designer and architect, normally people will not want to get to know you, but somehow Moholy-Nagy managed to navigate a path through.’”

Published : a Nemeses note in Gorse online

http://gorse.ie/the-static-the-live/

NEMESES: SELECTED COLLABORATIONS OF SJ FOWLER, VOLUME 2, publishes with HVTN Press on 26 October. We’re pleased to feature SJ Fowler’s collaboration with Rike Scheffler in gorse 11, our forthcoming Borders issue. Here is SJ Fowler on collaborations.

a note on how the collaborations have been revealed

The relationship between the static and the live is akin to the relationship between the heard word and the read word. It’s similar even to that which is experienced and that which is remembered. Obvious as this may be, a hierarchy in the language arts of poetry, fiction and text in general, favours the written over spoken. Marks upon the paper are the dominant article because of their possible permanence, and their fixed place in time. The sounds or experiences are secondary. I’m understating the issue, historically and philosophically, to make my first explanatory apology……………………………

Published : Alterity, on consciousness

Alterity, an anthologic publication on consciousness is now existent, with a poem of mine, alongside Imogen Reid, Astra Papachristodoulou, Derek Beaulieu and Anthony Etherin.

Alterity Five features the work of fourteen poets, writers and artists commissioned to respond - via reassembly, erasure, blackout and anagram - to The Cambridge Declaration On Consciousness.

My poem will be featured in my new book ‘I will show you the life of the mind (on prescription drugs)’ by Dostoyevsky Wannabe in 2020. http://www.alteritystudies.org/alterity-journal

It’s a beautiful thing

A note on : Poetry magazine : Reading list (October 2019)

The Reading List is a feature of Poetry’s Editors’ Blog. This month, contributors to the October 2019 issue share some recommendations. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2019/10/reading-list-october-2019

S.J. Fowler
I don’t read many poems. I have to do that for work a lot so it’s a busman’s holiday now. However, I do want to just list those whose work I know (and inevitably know in person, and like) whom I think are really underappreciated in England, because there are so many of them who aren’t well-known since their work is challenging but without a bio hook. But then I’ve got to choose from hundreds. Really—hundreds. Instead, to tell the truth, these books are good food for my own machine of poems:

• The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor

• John Barleycorn, Jack London

• Days Without End, Sebastian Barry

• The Master of Mankind (Horus Heresy series), Aaron Dembski-Bowden

• Journey to the End of Night, Louis-Ferdinand Céline

• The Land of Ulro, Czeslaw Milosz

• The Great Fall, Peter Handke

• From King of Karachi to Lockdown in the Costa Del Crime: Meet the International Smuggler Who Dominated Europe’s Worst Prison, Chet Sandhu

• Lanny, Max Porter

Published : Hotel Magazine, Parasites of the Symbiocene

Well happy Joe Turrent and I’s collaboration is now up on the brilliant Hotel Magazine. It contains my obituary, in alternative reality https://partisanhotel.co.uk/SJ-Fowler-Joe-Turrent

PENIS-EATING LOUSE

The penis-eating louse enters male humans, typically aged 18-39, through the anus. It severs the blood vessels in the prostate gland, causing the erectile tissue to fall off. It then attaches itself to the remaining stub of the penis and extracts blood through the claws on its front [clarification needed] causing the penis to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the penis by attaching its own body to the pubic bone. It appears that the parasite does not cause much other damage to the host, but it has been reported by Lanzing and O’Connor (2074) that infested men with two or more of the parasites are usually underweight. Once the parasite replaces the penis, some feed on the host's blood and many others feed on human mucus.

This is the only known case of a parasite assumed to be functionally replacing a host organ. When a host male dies, the louse will detach itself from the pubic bone after some time, leave the male’s crotch, and can then be seen clinging to its head or body externally. It is not fully known what then happens to the parasite in the wild.

Nemeses launch / St John on Bethnal Green / Oct 26th

Nemeses : The selected collaborations of SJ Fowler : 2014 - 2019
A book launch at St Johns on Bethnal Green, London
October Saturday 26th 2019 : 7.30pm - Free Entry
www.theenemiesproject.com/nemeses

200 Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 www.stjohnonbethnalgreen.org

Readings / performances from SJ Fowler and Eley Williams, Ailbhe Darcy, Joe Dunthorne, Luke Kennard, Prudence Chamberlain, Karen Sandhu, Gareth Evans, David Rickard, Harry Man and Alexander Kell.

A poetry book launch like no other. An hour long performative exploration of poetic collaboration in one of London’s most beautiful and idiosyncratic city churches. To celebrate the release of SJ Fowler’s selected collaborations 2014 to 2019, an evening of collaborative performances, installations and readings made especially for the night.

More on the book and to pre-order https://www.haverthorn.com/books/nemeses-selected-collaborations-of-sj-fowler-volume-2

ON NEMESES more at www.stevenjfowler.com/nemeses

From the publisher, Haverthorn : “No poet-artist has ever explored the potentials of multidisciplinary collaboration as thoroughly as SJ Fowler and Nemeses is a landmark publication evidencing that exploration. The book brings together over 50 collaborations and collaborators, placing poems and prose alongside musical scores, diaries, sculptures, films, photographs, scripts and more. It explores not only the grand potential for collaboration as an innovative, generative, playful and profound practise, but also aims to expand what is possible when sharing the live upon the page."

Nordic Poetry Festival #8 - Writers Centre Kingston closing event

This was an extraordinary reading. A brilliant way to end the Nordic Poetry Fest and begin a new year of Writers Centre Kingston. A typically atmospheric museum of futures, packed out to full capacity, saw 10 solo readings that cut through attention with their humour and quality. One of the best things I’ve organised in ages, and not expected to be so unusually good, it was a mysterious coming together of local writers to Kingston, Nordic poets both based in the UK and visiting, and Kingston Uni staff https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/nordickingston

Nordic Poetry Festival #7 - collaborating with Adam the Viking, and Morten Langeland

We took a risk making this entirely improvised but I think we pulled it off. You have to respect the JORVIK and its completely idiosyncratic potential for a performance. I emailed ahead to ask them if one of their Vikings would participate with Morten Langeland and I, and Adam, or Ingvar, stepped forward…

Pics below by Alexander Kell

Nordic Poetry Festival #6 - Nordic York at JORVIK

This was completely unique. The JORVIK is not a literary venue. It is the home of viking history in the UK, a huge tourist attraction and a museum really, with an anamatronic experience. Somehow we managed to present new avant garde and literary poetry performances amidst the unique layout of the space, moving from space to space. Some really theatrical and interesting performances were followed by everyone attending going on the ride through time. We time travelled, that’s how good it was. https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/nordicyork (pics below by Alexander Kell)

Nordic Poetry Festival #5 - a Crayolasemic performance with Morten Søndergaard

Morten Søndergaard is beloved. A man as generous and brilliant as he is gracious and kind. He and I worked together back in 2013 and we’ve maintained a friendship since then. Our work on this night was put together with almost no deep discussion. One idea led to another so quickly, so easily and we were experienced enough to leave so much to the improv energy of the night. Our mini dialogue played out as we unfurled our wallpaper and crayon asemic wrote to and around each other. I’m quietly proud of this work.

Pictures below by Alexander Kell

Nordic Poetry Festival #4 - Nordic Norwich

The third event of the festival, the first on the road, after a minibus tour from London to Norwich, poets from across the Nordic region collaborated with local poets presenting new collaborations.

All the performances are available here https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/nordicnorwich

The dragon hall is one of the most beautiful venues in the UK for poetry, and the National Centre for Writing has been a remarkably hospitable, professional and generous partner in this debut fest.

A real range of styles, tones and collaborations really brought everyone together and we headed out afterwards to get fleeced at a local curry house, with illuminous menus and chats into the night.