Tilt, the black-flagged streets / by Ken Campbell.
Published / Created:
[Oxford, England] : Ken Campbell, [1988]
Physical Description:
[62] p. : col. ill. ; 29 cm.
Collection:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Copyright Status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Classification:
Books
Notes:
"It was the widest cast net, bring the most disparate things together in time, space, and being. It started with me being in Canada and writing a poem called 'Storm Song.' I also had in mind the vertiginous steps up to the old cathedral at Whitby [and] the black flag of anarchy and disturbance ... I [had] some old mounted lino blocks which were random-sized squares, black flags of different sizes, and some Albertus type, rather beaten up ... I went to Zürich ... and walked into the Museum Reitberg, up to a statue of Shiva, with limbs hanging out and in funny angles, and lightning in his/her hair in a big wheel of fire. I can remember this statue saying to me, 'I'm coming into your book.' I thought, what the hell has Shiva got to do with this book about 'Storm Song' and the Whitby steps and black flags? And I thought, well, I'll do as I'm told ... I drew the figure of Shiva, but with breasts, and realised it was a puppet that I was going to dismantle. I made a puppet out of zinc pieces; it is disassembled and rebuilt [through the book] ... and the poem is built up line by line and reassembled. A line of Albertus [type] is revealed between the black flags, which are then arranged in random ways ... Meanwhile the wheel of fire, of passion, is beginning to be cut from the arc. The decorative border reaffirms the rectilinearness of the page because of what I did to the cover, which was to make it wonky and tilted and disturbed."--Ken Campbell, from The word returned.