Word In Transit

WATERLOO - EMBANKMENT - CHARING CROSS (2 minutes) 
 

For Word in Transit 3 - Campfire Tales, William Noel Clarke performed his latest work in the series Songs For Art. Using the folk tradition of storytelling–through-song the series of work is a mediation on people, places and artworks.

 

In 1965, Alberto Greco committed suicide in Barcelona. Before doing so, Greco wrote ‘FIN’ on his palm. This gesture towards spectacle is a beautifully haunting reminder of his flair but a saddening mediation on depression and longing. Greco was a multi-media artist from Argentina who’s best known for his mixed media paintings and live art.

 

He wrote the manifesto Vivo-Dito in 1963 that expressed his ‘contradictory position he found himself in with relation to life and art’; it is a brilliantly creative and lively text that was extended through a series of live art performance he had been creating at the time. The song was about about the mystery of this final gesture, that in its extremity, this gesture could be seen as a work itself, as many writing on the subject have formerly stated.

 

If this is considered how does this shape or reshape the canon? How can we depart from this? And what can follow?