Attention artists, publishers, readers and writers, and anyone interested in small presses, zines, artists’ books, and other kinds of radical print. Strong Language is just for you.
Three days of readings, performances, projections, installations and discussions with new work from M. John Harrison, Selina Thompson, Joolz Denby, Courttia Newland, Tony White, Vlatka Horvat, and more.
Strong Language is curated by the artist, writer and performance maker Tim Etchells of Sheffield’s Forced Entertainment.
Strong Language programme:
Strong Language Live #1
Fri 12th October 7-9pm
Site Gallery, 1-5 Brown Street, S1 2BS
FREE – book now
Strong Language Live #1 gets the weekend off to a powerful and playful start with readings from the genre-defying authors M John Harrison and Courttia Newland who both have new texts published by Piece of Paper Press available to collect free on the night. There will be additional word play from curator Tim Etchells and from artist Vlatka Horvat who’ll be reading a text related to her brand new projection piece As Things, As Animals on display at locations around the city. Strong Language Live #1 also sees the opening of our enticing exhibition of Piece of Paper Press editions and ephemera.
Small is Beautiful
Sat 13th October 1-3pm
Site Gallery, 1-5 Brown Street, S1 2BS
FREE – book now
Small is Beautiful is a two part discussion event around the labour of love that is radical print. In the first part artist Penny McCarthy will talk to the artist Janette Parris about her celebrated Arch Comic – ‘Bringing art and life together’ since 2011 – and to Tony White about the ambitions and approaches of Piece of Paper Press, which over the years has seen contributions from artists, performance-makers and writers from Joanna Walsh to Michael Moorcock. In part two, Leigh Wilson chairs a discussion about passion, politics and innovation featuring a rich array of forces to be reckoned with in contemporary independent publishing, from Sheffield-based & Other Stories to Dostoyevsky Wannabe and Longbarrow Press. Both sessions will have lots of space for audience questions and discussion – so please get involved.
Strong Language Live #2
Sat 13th October 7-9pm
Site Gallery, 1-5 Brown Street, S1 2BS
FREE – book now
Saturday’s Strong Language Live #2 is a bold follow up to Friday’s session comprising an inventive and restless evening of performances, readings and installations. Renowned punk poet, author and tattooist Joolz Denby shares the stage with performer Selina Thompson whose work touches on identity, bodies and the environment. Both Joolz and Selina will have new texts published by Piece of Paper Press available to collect free on the night. Lending further grace and gravity to the evening is Piece of Paper press editor and cult author Tony White, reading stories including The Holborn Cenotaph – ‘his powerful satirical performance piece’ (Financial Times) – that mix contemporary urban concerns with an approach that’s both gritty and conceptual. Away from the performances watch out for installations and sound-works in another part of the newly opened building by curator Tim Etchells.
In Eyes and Hands
Friday-Saturday 8-10pm
Graves Gallery facade, Tudor Square, S1 1XZ
Vlatka Horvat’s In Eyes and Hands summons human experiences, conditions, and states of mind via a collection of commonplace idioms featuring objects, animals, and elements of nature placed inside, on top of, or around, various parts of the human body. Creating a picture of humanity that shifts between the comical, the grotesque, and the poetic, Horvat’s text is a surprising and playful compendium that moves from ’time on your hands' and ‘frog in your throat' to ‘hat in your hand' and ‘wool over your eyes.’ As the work unfolds, the phrases are remixed to create a nonsensical list of images which re-imagine the body and its relation to the physical world. Projected large-scale on the Graves Gallery's exterior, Horvat’s work is visible from 8 to 10pm.
Race Cards
Friday-Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday 11am-4pm
Pinball Park (opposite Site Gallery)
A room containing 1000 questions about race, written by artist and performance maker Selina Thompson in three sittings across 24 hours one weekend in Edinburgh. You’re invited to answer one of them.
65. Are you black, or are you ‘new black’?
170. What is the long term psychological impact of white supremacy on people of colour?
220. My mum does not talk about race any more. It makes her uncomfortable, tired. Will this happen to me?
‘The work isn’t about answering questions; it’s about igniting an internal discussion in each of us that allows for the possibility of self-awareness, analysis and reflection.’ – Harold Offeh, This is Tomorrow.
The Fountain in the Forest – Tony White
Thursday 11th October 6pm
Site Gallery, 1-5 Brown Street, S1 2BS
£5/6 – book now / £6/7 on the door
Shifting between Holborn Police Station, rural 1980s France and the Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge, The Fountain in the Forest is a crime narrative with a difference. This is an ambitious, iconoclastic novel – an avant-garde linguistic experiment and meditation on liberty.
“Rich, riveting… White is always convivial company… His books are characterised by stylistic innovation, a feeling for place, a love of rogues and rebels.” – The Guardian, ‘Book of the Day’
The ticketed events are for ages 16+ only. Warning: strong language will be used in places.
This event is one of our Off the Shelf 2018 picks.
