August 9, 2008

Brion Gysin, Turning into the Multimedia Age, edited by Jose Ferez Kuri (Thames & Hudson, 2003).

I first learned about Brion Gysin via Wm. Burroughs & their cut-up projects they did back in the late 50s (I managed to interlibrary loan a first (only?) edition of Minutes to Go when I was an undergraduate), working my way to his permutation poems which I still find fascinating to hear & to read aloud:

kick that habit man
that kick habit man
kick habit that man
habit kick that man . . .

and once I learned of the Dreamachine, I fruitlessly tried to convince any sculptor I knew with sufficient skills & technology to build one.

This book traces Gysin's art career from his days as a surrealist, cut-up artist, visual poet, minimalist water colorist, etc. . . touching on the many phases of his long career. Beuatilfully illustrated, this does a good job as a restrospective catalogue. The essays are for the most part shortish and surface, more intro than delving.

This coupled with Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader offer a better than good introduction to Gysin's approach to the arts.