Monday 12 June 2023, 8pm
J.H. Prynne has been described as ‘England's leading late modernist poet’. His work is often thought of as formidably dense and abstract, but it is also playful, strongly rhythmic, and acutely sensitive to the sounds of the language. Prynne himself gives readings very rarely, not wanting his own biological voice to be mistaken for the ‘sound’ of the poems. In a rare experimental performance – and with the blessing of the poet – this evening will involve group soundings of two of Prynne’s recent poetry sequences: Kernals in Vernal Silence (2020) and At Raucous Purposeful (2023). Connections between Prynne's work and other experimental media are explored via the work of the improvising musicians Angharad Davies and Dominic Lash, and videos/films by Kerry Baldry, Riccardo Iacono, Jamie Jenkinson, Deniz Johns and Samantha Rebello.
‘Raucous Purposeful’ is a Contact event: www.contactscreenings.co.uk
Programme
Videos:
Selections from recent ‘Lamp Posts’ (2010 to date) Riccardo Iacono
Poetry:
Kernals in Vernal Silence (2020) J.H. Prynne
performed by William Crosby, Kelcy Davenport, Deniz Johns, Simon Payne
Videos:
Deities (2015) Kerry Baldry (1min)
Media Blackout I (2016) Deniz Johns (4mins)
Fingers in the Gorse (2022) Jamie Jenkinson (3mins)
Music:
Angharad Davies – solo violin
Interval
Film:
Psalter (2019) Samantha Rebello (15 mins)
Poetry and Music:
At Raucous Purposeful (2023) J.H. Prynne
performed by William Crosby, Kelcy Davenport, Deniz Johns, Simon Payne
Angharad Davies (violin) Dominic Lash (double bass)
Kerry Baldry is an artist, filmmaker and independent curator. Her film practice often explores the relationship between performance and the moving image. Her first commission was a film for BBC2s ‘One Minute Television’, broadcast on The Late Show in the 1990s. For several years she has curated and distributed the self-initiated ‘One Minute’ project. Volumes 1–10 of the series have been screened worldwide and are archived at the BFI.
https://www.kerrybaldry.co.uk/
Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance.Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation.
Much of her work involves collaboration. She has long standing duos with Tisha Mukarji, Dominic Lash and Lina Lapelyte and plays with Common Objects, Cranc and Skogen. She has been involved in projects with Tarek Atui, Tony Conrad, Richard Dawson, Gwenno, Roberta Jean, Jack McNamara, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, Eliane Radigue, Georgia Ruth and J.G.Thirlwell.
Most of her records are released on Another Timbre but she also has releases on Absinth Records, Confrontrecords, Emanem, Potlatch and winds measure recordings.Her first orchestral piece was commissioned by LCMF in 2019.
Riccardo Iacono is a London-based artist working with film, video, digital media, performance, photography, collage, painting and installation. His works are concerned with visual, physical and social processes and formed through experimentation, improvisation and play.
http://www.riccardoiacono.co.uk/
Jamie Jenkinson is an artist, researcher, and programmer based in sunny Morecambe. He is interested in low-cost and accessible creative practices, user cultures, quantum philosophies, improvisation and decentralisation. Jamie uses his smartphone as a digital sketchbook, functioning as a starting point for wider considerations around the energy of place and community. He co-programmes the online platform xviix, and the project space, Jewellers, in Morecambe. http://www.jamiejohnjamesjenkinson.com
Deniz Johns is an experimental filmmaker and a founding member of collective-iz, an artist collective, working within the context of experimental film, video and performance. She is currently teaching at Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts as a lecturer in Film Practice. She completed a PhD in 2021. Before receiving her MA from the Royal College of Art in 2012, she studied film, choreography and linguistics in Turkey, Poland, Japan, and the UK. https://cargocollective.com/denizjohns
Dominic Lash concentrates on the double bass and electric guitar. He works regularly with musicians including John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Emil Karlsen, Mark Sanders, Pat Thomas, and Alex Ward. He has lived and worked in Oxford, New York and Bristol, and is currently based in Cambridge where he and N.O. Moore curate the monthly improvised music series Soundhunt. He also runs the label Spoonhunt.
http://dominiclash.blogspot.co.uk/
Samantha Rebello’s work as a filmmaker has involved the exploration of matter and form, oscillating between an experiential approach to the life in material substances, and a conceptual inquiry into the contexts they inhabit, juxtaposing the ways in which we have tried to frame the material world and form it, through language, images and objects. She also works in painting, drawing, writing, music and sound.
https://www.bassotto.org/
