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B e t w e e n   W o r d s   :   P i e c e   f o r   4   i n s t r u m e n t s




Between Words investigates the topography of language, drawing attention to its construction, materiality and choreography. Using Raymond Roussel’s long 1274-line poem Nouvelles Impressions d’Afrique as its source, it reflects it back, though void of words, as a mere “landscape of grammar” (a landscape of punctuation).


The artist, in this work, conceals the words of the poem to isolate an exact facsimile of the author’s original notational (punctuational) inscriptions found in his oeuvre. The initial book work is then re-translated into a score, arranged in four movements (four cantos) and devised as a: Piece for 4 instruments. The splayed punctuation is transcribed into a landscape of elaborate symphonic arrangement, ascribed with questions surrounding the duration, instrumentation, articulations and dynamics.


An online version of the ‘punctuation facsimile’ is available to view on UbuWeb (n° 33). An extract of the work is also found in the newly released anthology, Against Expression edited by Kenneth Goldsmith and Craig Dworkin (2011). View introductory essays & table of contents.


The score was first performed at the Soundwaves Festival, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton (2008) with leading contemporary musicians, Anton Lukoszevieze and his group, Apartment House. Recent performances include at the Nuit Résonance, 11e Biennale de Lyon (2011), the Time of Music Festival, Viitasaari, Finland (2011) and at Site Gallery, Sheffield (alongside the conference and exhibition of Sol LeWitt: Artist’s Books).










Performance of Between Words

Site Gallery, Sheffield (alongside the conference and exhibition of Sol LeWitt: Artists’ Books),  May 2010


Performed by the Edges Ensemble





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Photo credit: Richard Bevan