Surreal-Absurd and the Art of the Prose-Poem
One notable characteristic of the surreal-absurd is a taste for minimalism and prose-poetry, for spinning weird yet resonant yarns in a paragraph or so of poetic prose. Herein lies a selection of such prose poems from the Mercurius archives…
Femininity, Animism, and Politics: how Pop Surrealists are Re-inventing Surrealism
From female avatars to mountains with eyes, Dorothy Circus Gallery's Alexandra Mazzanti talks about trends both old and new in pop surrealism
Joe Sorren’s Between the Wrinkles
In the early 2000s, Joe Sorren emerged as an important figure in the eclectic and transversal artistic movement of Pop Surrealism, also known as Lowbrow art. These narrative paintings traverse the rooms of memory, unveiling in each work a hint of a story the artist holds closely within himself.
Book of Miracles
The Book of Miracles was discovered in a cave in the mountainous province of Girona, Spain. It is written in a language that has long since sunk into the mists of time: the language of the Zohori, an ancient people who once occupied vast swathes of land in and around the Pyrenees but disappeared without a trace circa 1500 BC.
The Mountain Where Nothing Happens
Poetry of Life - Project Jupiter
The Mountain Where Nothing Happens (Alien Buddha Press) is a conceptual documentary poem sequence with elements of minimalism, surrealism, absurdism, linguistic topography and elemental psychogeography. Join Thomas Helm, step-by-step, as he embarks on a journey to unravel the riddles of consciousness, first in the wilds of the mountain, and then later in the hyperreal city.
A Very Brief History of Oneness
Poetry of Life - Future World(s)
When we speak of Oneness, we usually mean the separation of the self is an illusion and that ultimate reality transcends such dualism. It is a concept that recurs throughout human history.
Coincidence
Coincidences transform reality. They are the touchstones of fate, places where narratives begin or break down, symptoms of pre-destination or randomness, depending on your intellect.
Memories
Memories,
Coiling round the mind like water snakes,
Poisonous and medicinal.
A Brief Manifesto on Variety (For Dreamers, Poets and Tantric Artists)
Variety doesn’t exist just to appease Ennui; we each possess a psychic need to externalise inner forces, to find fresh images for buried depths.
The Art of (Stationary) Travel
Although cliched, the metaphor of the “journey” never loses its shine no matter how many times it is used. Immersed in an existence based on constant motion, we are possessed of a deep psychic need to decipher and come to terms with our own “soul-journeys”. And so time again we are drawn to the resonance of the “travel” narrative.
A Complicated Progress
Perhaps the popularity of the bildungsroman has less to do with a taste for accurate depictions of reality than a desire for a comprehensible structure amid the chaos of emotions.
Death in a Time of Coronavirus
It’s difficult to believe in death without first-hand experience. The loss of a loved one, or perhaps an illness, brings your own mortality into focus. The inhuman birth and death cycles carry on regardless of your absence. What appears steady, will change. If not now, then later. If not later, than now.
The Labyrinth of Human Culture
Like the dream of a mute, expressions of ultimate reality cannot be communicated. Thus we create labyrinths, in search of the Perfect Word that cannot be translated.
Confessions of a Distracted Mind
We each have our own crooked nook of Reality from which to make sense of life. Perhaps a little poison is necessary to make the flow self-aware.
US Election Special: An Emotional Response to Donald Trump
Existence, Trump reminds us, can be dark and meaningless indeed. How should one respond emotionally?
Harmony
The world is out of balance. How many times has this been said? The machines of profit do not compute extraneous loss. They are out of balance with the natural world.
Beauty
Perhaps reaching a definition of beauty is simply an exercise in skilful omission, in suggesting absences, in loss.
What is injustice?
Suffering is everywhere. Much is self-created. However, much is also structural, and derives from nature’s cruel hierarchies or from the abuse endemic in human systems. This latter source of suffering is known as injustice.
Peace and Emptiness
In September, the seasons change. The mountains brim with wild fruit and mushrooms. The year begins to point towards an end. The shallow dance above the void seeks a space unpolluted by time, by sorrow, by joy. Despite our heartbreak and our acts of foolishness, somehow a perfect source remains intact.
What is movement?
Creation’s favourite: the birds that serenade the fleeing stars, the Pamplemousse dawn, draped in sheets of pink and red across the sky…
The never-ending quest…
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