American artist Cecilia Charlton selects two short stories by Italo Calvino: 'A Sign in Space' and 'The Origin of the Birds'. Both stories focus on the very inception of what comes into being and what we now take for granted - signs/signals/artworks as well as birds/the other/evolutionary rejects. All the while, 'A Sign in Space' draws extraordinary parallels with an art practice. From the anxieties of creating something new to the egotistic punchiness of asserting authenticity, we join Qfwfa who journeys throughout space and time,...
American artist Cecilia Charlton selects two short stories by Italo Calvino: 'A Sign in Space' and 'The Origin of the Birds'. Both stories focus on the very inception of what comes into being and what we now take for granted - signs/signals/artworks as well as birds/the other/evolutionary rejects. All the while, 'A Sign in Space' draws extraordinary parallels with an art practice. From the anxieties of creating something new to the egotistic punchiness of asserting authenticity, we join Qfwfa who journeys throughout space and time, pontificating on what it is to create and leave a mark in the world of one's existence. Likewise, 'The Origin of the Birds' focuses on the start of beginnings. In this story, Qfwfa narrates his (his?) adventures into the void to discover and embrace the evolutionary rejects as part of his ancestry and presence, particularly their leader Queen Or with whom he is besotted.
'A Sign in Space' appeared in 'Cosmicomics' in 1965 while 'The Origin of the Birds' was first published in ‘t zero’ 1967. Both stories feature in ‘The Complete Cosmicomics’ comprising 'Cosmicomics' and 't zero' plus other stories published 2009.
CECILIA CHARLTON
ceciliacharlton.com
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BOOKS IDEAS WRITERS
'A Room of One's Own' 1929, Virginia Woolf
'Against Interpretation' 1966, Susan Sontag
'Agnes Martin' 2015, Tate
'Brave New World' 1932, Aldous Huxley
Jane Austen
'No One Belongs Here More Than You' 2007 Miranda July
Gabriel Garcia Marquez 'Eyes of a Blue Dog' 1947, 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' 1967, 'The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World' 1968 co-author Hernan Diaz
'The World of Ornament' 2006, Auguste Racinet and M Dupont-Auberville
The concept of multiple discovery
'The Sixteen Trees of the Somme' 2014 Lars Mytting
Three Fates from Greek mythology
William Beebe, American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author
William Weaver, Italo Calvino's translator
'Women's Work: A Personal Reckoning with Labour, Motherhood and Privilege' 2019, Megan K Stack
ARTISTS CURATORS GALLERIES
Alison Jacques Gallery London, 'The Gees Bend Quiltmakers' in partnership with the Souls Grow Deep Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the contributions of African American artists from the Southern states, 20 Dec 2020 - 6 Feb 2021
Anni Albers
Agnes Martin 'Words' 1961
Dolly Parton
Hannah Brown 'Art Fictions' Episode 17, 9 Dec 2020
Helen Frankenthaler
Hilma Af Klimt
Lee Krasner
London Art Fair, 'Platform' focus on folk art londonartfair.co.uk/fair-programme/platform, 20-31 Jan 2021
Nicolaus Schafhausen, 'Der Speigel' 2013, resigned as Director of Kunsthalle Wein 2019
Robert Rauschenberg 'Erased de Kooning Drawing' 1963
Sheila Hicks
Turner Contemporary Margate, 'We Will Walk: Art and Resistance in the American South' curated by Hannah Collins and Paul Goodwin, 7 Feb - 6 Sep 2020
Willem de Kooning
