Perri MacKenzie

Synopsis Assignment

of I have looked diligently at my own mind by Heraclitus of Epheseus (trans. Guy Davenport)

I have looked diligently at my own mind is an essay by Heraclitus of Epheseus, (Greece , c. 500 BC). It is one of the many ancient thought-fragments anthologized in The Lost Origins of the Essay, (ed. John D’Agata, Graywolf Press 2009). I have looked diligently… is a series of 38 short statements. Each statement is visually separated from the next with a graphic. This gives each thought space to be itself - a discrete statement; yet with the flow of the repeated graphics this discretion is given visual continuity.

This discrete continuity is subtle: each thought at first seems aphoristic, Zen-like, unified in itself. Yet, as you read the essay, the thought-fragments begin to correspond with each other. Thus the writer moves from

We share a world when we are awake

to

Awake, a dying world.

The essay begins with a reflection on knowing and intelligence:

Those who wish to know more about the world must learn about it in details

This then moves on to an extended meditation on the movements of the elements (fire, water, lightening) throughout the world, eventually returning to its details - the world’s debris of dirt and dust:

There are gods here, too.

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Describe what you do assignment

What follows is a 150 word description of three projects.

Popsong

There are three elements to Popsong: two screen prints, a performance, and a PDF. The screen prints: two, A2 in size, two colours - dark royal blue and dark ochre. The prints were graphic, containing hand-written text (blue) and a drawing (ochre). The first text read “popsong”, the second “ritournelle”. Each drawing appeared to be scrawly renderings of a single foot. The performance was of me, talking and singing, descending a stair case - lasting approximately 15 minutes. I read from a script, which had painted elements on the backs of the pages, and deposited each page as I descended the stairs. I sang in French and spoke in English. I sang La Javanaise by Serge Gainsbourg, and spoke about zig zags, translation, hexagonal chessboards, and the letters A, V, and Z. The script from the performance was scanned in double-sided as a PDF, and it exists on my website.

(150 words)

Ivan: A meditation on three objects

I was asked by MAP magazine to convert research I had accumulated on a residency at the Centre of Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, into an online publication. It is soon to be published. The online publication is called Ivan: A meditation on three objects. Each section contemplates a “cultural object”, in order: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, the Mappa embroideries by Alighiero Boetti, and The Lecture on Ethics by Ludwig Wittgenstein. The text is set in Times New Roman, with occasional blue italics, and is accompanied by 13 watercolour illustrations in process-blue, process-pink, and process-orange. The illustrations range in style and content, from tonal washes to graphic fills. The publication is laid out in a series of landscape spreads, and is designed by me. The text is approx. 6,000 words long, split into three sections with a very short introduction and no conclusion.

(144 words)

The air was full of scent, imbued with life and with contradictions

This is a performance by me to take place on Saturday 13th October at Sunday Artfair. It is presented by Victor and Hester with Aye-Aye Books in the publication section of the art fair. The performance is part of a broader project with Victor & Hester and Allison Gibbs exploring the potentiality of archives. The performance will be approximately 20 minutes long, and will include the following: one A3 watercolour painting by me, pinned to wall (the painting is of hands holding a colourful rectangular object with a green leafy background), and myself reading aloud an abstract essay referring to my relationship with my particular copy of Herman Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game. The essay also refers to the phenomenon of “structural colour” in objects such as opals, fish scales, and the blue sky. The essay centres around the arbitrary question: “what is this books relationship to its cover?”

(149 words)