[book project] THAT TREE IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE

pen + ink on paper

13x20cm

Foreground for an illustration for the book project. I think there's about another thirty drawings to go...

THE ISLES OF ENDPAPER [one]

pen on paper

9.5x15cm

The islands are often only visible when viewed through a telescope in reverse. This has been known to lead to some confusion.

WE ARE A TEMPORARY STRUCTURE

pen on paper

5.5x5.5cm each

[framing]

THEY CAN NEVER TELL WHETHER THEY'RE GOING UP OR DOWN

pen on paper

7.5x24cm

AND SOMETIMES THEY ARE SUSPENDED

pen on paper

7.5x24cm

THE POSSIBILITIES OF FREEDOM OFTEN GO UNNOTICED

pen on paper

7.5x24cm

THE EMERGENCE OF UNIVERSAL MASS

[or: sometimes even they forget to turn on the lights]

 

pen + ink on paper

11.5x20cm

STEFAN THEMERSON [disinfecting words]

From Tom Harris by Stefan Themerson [intro by Nicolas Wadley]

"The initiative behind his concern with semantics was to free words of confusing sentimental or literary references, and, as with the photograms, to expose their own incontrovertible identity. The autograph character of his later novels is of several simultaneous currents of narrative and thought that may appear only obliquely related and that, together, create their own cumulative reality and sense. His whole oeuvre as a writer is like that: a continuous collage, its parts distinct but full of allusive echoes and repetitions"

[Nicolas Wadley, pg. ix]

"I wanted to disinfect words, scrub them right to the very bone of their dictionary definitions. That was how - somewhat  ferociously and sardonically - I invented Semantic poetry. It was meant to be funny. Both serious and funny."

[Stefan Themerson, pg. xvi]

"Fiction allows you to do things that history or treatises can't - especially in the sense that you can rescue or retrieve meanings that are lost from generation to generation. These time barriers are harder to cross than geographical barriers."

[Stefan Themerson, pg. xvii]