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| To Anna Blume | 19-03-2004 |
| On the edge of the platform beneath the front wall's large white circle rests an overhead projector, a microphone attached to its encircled glass top square. A ladder grants direct vertical access. Thus, Harald Smykla ascends and, his back to the audience, switches on the projector. Inside the big white dot, a slightly smaller circle of light displays a hole in the wall, from where a cable emerges to power equipment, and a scalpel's large projected shadow. On taking this instrument, HS articulates some German words and starts engraving acetate with text by means of pointed blade. Both the sound of his voice and the scratchy noise of the scalpel's incisions are amplified into the space. He proceeds to perform a fragmented recital, breaking the lingual flow of the late, great Kurt Schwitter's famous MERZ poem "An Anna Blume" through lengthy pauses: Each line HS reads out in German is rendered into written English, carved into acetate. Thereby, his right hand's large shadow commands the space in the circle of light, with scrawny lines of awkward cacography slowly trawling behind: Facing the back of the OHP, HS must write upside down, bottom to top, right to left, in order to convey a readable text to the audience. On finishing his translation, he scatters powdered soot across the acetate and sweeps it off with a handbrush. Pigment is trapped in the ruts created by text incision, enhancing the projected writing's legibility. HS descends. The end. Kurt Schwitters wrote an English version of his poem, entitled 'Eve Blossom'. Yet HS claims - with due respect - that his performed translation is closer in spirit to Schwitters' original text. It reads like this: To Anna Blume O you beloved of my twenty-seven senses, I luv ya - you thou thine thee, I you, you me. - We ? That doesn't (casually) belong here. Who are you, uncounted lady ? You are ? - are you ? - People say you would be - let them say, they don't know how the steeple stands. You wear the hat on your feet, and walk on them hands, on the hands you walk. Hello, your red clothes, sawn into white folds. Red do I love Anna Blume, red I luv ya ! You thou thine thee, I you, you me. - We ? That belongs (casually) into the cold embers. Red blossom, red Anna Blume, how do people say ? Prize questions : 1.) Anna Blume has an birdie. 2.) Anna Blume is red 3.) What colour is the birdie ? Blue is the colour of your yellow hair. Red is the whirring of your green bird. You simple girl in your plain dress, you dear green pet, I luv ya - You thou thine thee, I you, you me. - We ? That belongs (casually) into the ember chest. Anna Blume ! Anna , a - n - n - a , I drip your name. Your name drips like soft beef suet. Do you know it, Anna, do you already know? One can read you also from behind , and you, you most magnificent of all, you are from behind as from the front : "a - n - n - a" Beef suet drips caress across my back. Anna Blume , you drippy pet, I luv ya red! - Translator's note: All apparent misspellings or grammar mistakes are deliberate, as are those in the German original, which mine attempt to emulate. - |
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| Area10 Project Space.Peckham - | |