THAX DOUGLAS: DEAD (THE POEM AS OBJECT)
Installation/Performance: Saturday, May 22, 7-11PM
Performance at 9PM
Thax Douglas has been seriously writing poetry since the day after his 30th birthday in 1987. Always attracted to the so-called "abstract" he denied his predilection for a while until he had no choice. In 1991 he composed many "poetry portraits" of people but got bored. In 1997 he wrote a "portrait" of a band and was overjoyed to find his metier. The unique speck that makes a band beloved and unique is what is translated into words in his poems. Written on the night of the show ideally the poem captures the vibrations (a literal not a slang term) of the night and bands and their fans will pick up on that.
Thax says:"I love the idea of a poem as a 3 dimensional object- After all the electrical charge of inspiration takes place in those 3 dimesnions-so what better way to give body to that idea than to strect the manuscripts of the poems to a giant size-beyond broadsides, the poems become sculptures, the letters chiseled out against a background of white hills. The poems proudly stare out at the viewer as tall or taller than the viewer (no longer just reader-"reading" comes later).
Some but not all of the poems are illustrated by Joe Swec. Ambient music by Kevin Foote.
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