Trash Drawings
2019
Drawings of poetry on trash made in London. The work is filmed as it’s being made and conversations continue with passersby. The trash is used as found and when the work is finished it is left on the street.

These are all extracts of poetry by Kamau Brathwaite from books that include Black + Blues 1976, Sun Poem 1982, Middle Passages 1992, Words Need Love Too 2000, and of M. NourbeSe Philip’s interview with Patricia Saunders, ‘Defending the Dead.’

Kamau Brathwaite–Caliban, Black + Blues, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 28″ x 72″

Kamau Brathwaite–How Europe Underdeveloped Africa 1, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 30″ x 84″ x 48″

Kamau Brathwaite–Conqueror, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60″ x 50″

Kamau Brathwaite–Fever, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60″ x 50″

Kamau Brathwaite–How Europe Underdeveloped Africa 2, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 40″ x 30″ x 48″

M. NourbeSe Philip–Defending the Dead, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 55″ x 40″ x 8″

Kamau Brathwaite–Orange Origen, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 70″ x 26″ x 26″

Kamau Brathwaite–Red Rising, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60″ x 80″ x 6″

Kamau Brathwaite–Springblade, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Kamau Brathwaite–Stone for Mikey Smith, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 26″ x 72″

Kamau Brathwaite–Stone for Mikey Smith, 2019, detail

Kamau Brathwaite–Words Need Love Too, 2019, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 70″ x 26″ x 26″

Trash Drawings 2018

Poetry, and occasionally prose and song lyrics, are written on trash.  Amongst those whose works are sampled here are Dionne Brand, Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Marcel Duchamp, Thom Gunn, Metail Urbain, Sylvia Plath, Scritti Politti, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sun Ra, Margaret Watts, William Carlos Williams, Virginia Woolf.

M. NourbeSe Philip–Zong!, 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded boxes, variable dimensions

Dionne Brand–Ossuaries 1, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 28” x 70”,

Dionne Brand–Ossuaries 2, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 28” x 70”

Édouard Glissant–Poetics of Relation (into the violet belly) 1 , 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded bed, approximately 80″ x 36″

Édouard Glissant–Poetics of Relation (into the violent belly) 2, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions,

Édouard Glissant–Cross-Cultural Poetics (languages that dazzle and shimmer), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 40” x 30”

Édouard Glissant–Poetics of Relation (the hounded scent), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 16″ x 16″ x 72″

Kamau Brathwaite–Sam Lord, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60″ x 80″

Kamau Brathwaite–Barbajan Poems, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Brathwaite–Magical Realism, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 34” x 90”

Kamau Brathwaite–Duke Playing Piano, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 50” x 24”

Kamau Brathwaite–Jouvert, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Kamau Brathwaite–Letter Sycorax (if yu cyan beat Prospero whistle) 1, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 46″ x 32″

Kamau Brathwaite–Letter Sycorax (if yu cyan beat Prospero whistle) 2, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Kamau Brathwaite–Word Making Man (silver pellables), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60″ x 80″ x 8″

Kamau Brathwaite–Word Making Man (you have whispered it all), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 40″ x 28″

Kamau Brathwaite–Barbajan Poems, (the gladness of it all), 2018, acrylic spray paint on exterior Fluc gallery wall, Vienna, approximately 50″ x 200″

Kamau Brathwaite–Barbajan Poems, (andhisheartrushedouttothesight), 2018, acrylic spray paint on exterior Fluc gallery wall, Vienna, approximately 120″ x 180″

Virginia Woolf–To the Lighthouse/Kamau Brathwaite–Negus 1, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60″ x 80″

Virginia Woolf–To the Lighthouse/Kamau Brathwaite–Negus 2, 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded mattress, approximately 60″ x 80″

Virginia Woolf–The Waves, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 48” x 96”

Sylvia Plath–Morning Song, 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded refrigerator, approximately 60” x 26” x 26”

Sylvia Plath–Lady Lazarus, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Sylvia Plath–Daddy, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Thom Gunn–At The Center, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash,variable dimensions

Percy Bysshe Shelley–Sonnet–England in 1819, 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded mattress, approximately 60” x 80”

Percy Bysshe Shelley–these prison halls of wealth and fashion, 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded table, approximately 24″ x 50″ x 12″

Percy Bysshe Shelley–Cancelled Stanza (waves sleep together), 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded mattress, approximately 60″ x 80″

Aimé Césaire–Return to my Native Land (old wounds, rotten bones), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 70” x 48”

Aimé Césaire–Return to My Native Land (the ecliptic inn), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 40″ x 80″

Aimé Césaire–Return to My Native Land (Islands that are scares upon the water), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 30″ diameter

Aimé Césaire–Return to My Native Land (heia for those who have never invented anything), 2018, acrylic spray paint on discarded mattress, approximately 60″ x 80″

Marcel Duchamp–infra-thin: the difference (dimensional) between 2 mass-produced objects/[from the same mold], 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Marcel Duchamp–infra-thin: velvet trousers-/their whistling sound (in walking), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Catherine Gallagher & Stephen Greenblatt on Eric Auerbach (conjure life-worlds from tiny fragments), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 60” x 80”

William Carlos Williams–A Sort of a Song (no ideas but in things–invent!) 1, 2018 acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 24″ x 30″

William Carlos Williams–A Sort of a Song (no ideas but in things–invent!) 2, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 24″ x 30″

William Carlos Williams–A Sort of a Song (no ideas but in things–invent!) 3, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 24″ x 30″

William Carlos Williams–Seafarer, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 26″ x 72″

Métal Urbain–Paris Maquis, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Scritti Politti–Scritlocks Door (faith comma hope comma charity), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions

Sun Ra–I Wasn’t Born, 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, approximately 30″ x 30″

Margaret Watts–Washerwoman (for Ken), 2018, acrylic spray paint on trash, variable dimensions