what the actual book‽
a tabletop exhibition in Pinkdot life gallery
chorinerstrasse 51 Berlin
9.8.24
what is a book when its pages are unbound? what does that do to the stories within? what happens when words are no longer fixed, instead moving around and through pages? or when lines of letters phase in and out of each other? or when a book unfolds in different directions, instructing the reader how to constantly reorient themselves to it and its content?
'what the actual book‽' presents a selection of 9 book shaped poetry sculptures and delves deep into the possibilities of what book can be, what being book can mean, and what can be said when freed from the binds of convention. this exhibition showcases a total of nine books written and created since late 2019 by grouping them into three groups of three which can be loosely described as experiments in bindings, kinetics, and transparencies.
'bindings'
'i remember this one time’ 2019 is a collection of memories that are re ordered dependent on the context of their recollection this is a selection of poetic vignettes from my life since coming out as trans in early 2018. they’re as true as I can write them, there’s a loose chronology, though there isn't a convenient start or a natural end, like memory they are associated and reassociated - ordered and reordered - each time they are remembered
'dreamworld - a liberello' 2019/20 is a response to my involvement in the Dreamworld immersive art project between the 20th of december 2019 and the 5th of january 2020. the poems and musings are a response to both my interaction with the space and to life outside of the space in the time I spent there dealing with love, identity, family, sexuality, trauma and the associated existential meditations, I found myself in need of a new approach to language and expression.
'imagine dancing' 2023 is the most 'conventional' book of them all. approximately 200 haiku printed and bound in chronological order, chaptered with the names and dates of the notebooks they were written in. taking the 5 7 5 form and pushing it frequently past it's breaking point, these poems are the doodles, meditations, bases of kinetic pieces, and crystallisations of thought and understanding that punctuated and accompanied my life between Dec 19 and Jan 23.
'kinetics'
'sometimes the best beginnings' 2023 cracks open wide the very concept of page itself, incepting a poetic form in which words dance across the page - appearing, disappearing, and morphing into new ones as they move through and within the paper they are printed upon
'i am from my self' 2023 while being a book of kinetic interactive poems, it is simply a collection of deeply personal, experiential, and relational poetry. poetry which discovers self, heals trauma, battles addiction, and overcomes abuse
'palimpsest' 2023 consolidates the playfulness of this new form and imbues it further with hard won wisdom whilst tempering the abject beauty of being with the utter absurdity of consciousness
'transparencies'
‘i luv u sisyphos monkey’ 2020 takes sisyphos and imagines him happy as one of shakespeare’s monkeys, sifting through tens of thousands of randomly sequenced lowercase characters of the english alphabet - by hand - looking for the words ‘i luv u’. while the one hundred page book is the chronicle of both its own inception - and some important steps towards self love and acceptance, it also exists as two books - the same book views from different aspects - one of white paper, and one of clear acetate which explores the beauty of aberration - of queerness - as it relates to site of data set.
‘lost. in every sense’ 2024 is a book of poetry whose words have been layered, shredded, interspersed with shocks of colour and iridescent transparency, and laminated into visceral visual compositions that contemplate the roots of violence and trauma from the personal to the systemic
‘found out the hard way’ 2024 uses the lamination techniques established in other works such as ‘lost. in every sense’ and ‘red, white, &’ and scales them up to a3 format. whilst stil engaging with broad themes of violence and trauma, this book explores the juxtaposition of colourful, light, and bright aesthetics against dark, pensive, and poignant subject matter
have you ever meta haiku?
baerum kunsthall, oslo
19.10-12.11.23
what the book‽
an exhibition by gorjeoux moon
retramp gallery
1-3.9.23
'what the book‽' is a set of six 105mm square book shaped poetry sculptures, 'what the book‽' delves deep into the possibilities of what book can be, what being book can mean, and what can be said when freed from the binds of convention.
six books, six concept, six bindings containing dozens of novel technical and poetic techniques', 'what the book‽' is a library of conceptual concrete poetry 'books' which the reader must haptically engage with and perform themselves in order to experience what book, page, and poem can be outside of expectations of form.
what is a book when its pages are unbound? what does that do to the stories within? what happens when words are no longer fixed, instead moving around and through pages? or when lines of letters phase in and out of eachother? or when a book unfolds in different directions, instructing the reader how to constantly reorient themselves to it and its content?
have you ever meta haiku?
retramp gallery
25-27.3.22
vernissage time lapse of room one 25.3.22
‘have you ever meta haiku?’ is a gallery shaped book of book shaped interactive poetry sculptures. it is an immersive exhibition of concrete poems which the reader must perform themselves in order to experience them, and explore what book and page can be outside of conventional expectations of form.
‘have you ever meta haiku?’ is a deeply personal and unflinchingly honest journey through healing from trauma, addiction recovery, and accepting and embracing trans identity. moving through the darkness of rock bottoms and abuse whilst finding humour, light, and hope in self reflection, it is as funny as it is moving, and as entertaining as it is informative.
showcasing gorjeoux’s 'book shaped kinetic poetry sculptures' - conceptual concrete poems which the reader must haptically engage with and perform, and by doing so may explore what ‘book’ and ‘page’ can be and mean once one steps outside of conventional expectations of form. these are poems in which words dance across the page - they appear, disappear, or morphing into new ones as they move through and within the paper they are embedded in.
sometimes they light up upon opening, sometimes they are voice activated, and sometimes they speak for themselves - always they reveal more hidden depths, meanings, and metaphors, than just words on a page can.
'write me out loud' snippet from gallery performance 26.3.22
using the walls as pages, some poems require the reader to change their perspective to reveal glossy printed poems that are only visible with light coming from certain directions
'a change of perspective'
'violences'
full meta baggage
stone soup
25-28.8.22
immersive installation of my 'book shaped kinetic poetry sculptures' at the stone soup experience design camp in august 2022
'bitter pills and poetry'
24.7-2.8.20 retramp gallery berlin
despite lockdown only allowing us out of our home for the bare minimums of human contact, each time i left my apartment i was subjected without fail to transmisogynistic aggressions, always at the hands of, or from the lips of, men.
i processed these experiences by making absurdist objects - by taking the objects of my day to day life and emblazoning them with the statement ‘i fucking hate men’.
i call these pieces absurdist because it is utterly absurd that there is barely an aspect of our day to day life, that is not explicitly and/or implicitly imbued with, or coloured by, patriarchal ideals. the products we are dependent upon for hygiene, nourishment, productivity, or entertainment have come into our lives because men could profit from them. the overheads that dictated an object’s production or form have been dictated by the need for men to further consolidate their wealth, power, and influence.
i have been given no agency or consideration whatsoever over the heteronormative propaganda to which i have been exposed for as long as i have breathed. i find it entirely appropriate then that i should reclaim those patriarchal objects and imbue them with anti patriarchal slogans.
over the weeks and months of lockdown 1, the need to release and transmute the anger of being hurt so systematically into something whimsical and absurd - transmuted itself into a manifesto - my trans manifesto - an explanation of my pieces, a reckoning with masculinity, and a call to do. the. work.
