In this lyric lecture on queer love poems, a perhaps-too-close reading, Sophie Seita treats poetic lines taken from Wendy Lotterman鈥檚 poetry as if they were part of their ongoing dialogue and epistolary friendship. The piece also thinks about 鈥榯he prurient鈥 as an aesthetic category of queer interpretation, what it means to write about and 鈥榰se鈥 our friends鈥 words, or to read queer poems to a lover, and in this way put a spin on the avant-garde鈥檚 proclaimed desire for social efficacy. The lecture also performs 鈥榝orm鈥 through what could be called experimental or dialogic criticism, letting texts or voices correspond with each other on the page, sonically or visually, where argument and explanation emerge through association and juxtaposition. In this way, it鈥檚 an intimate unravelling and enfolding of many听scenes of reading.
Dear Wendy,
Yes to feelings as guests that one can properly address!
Wish me luck that my emotional quandaries will somehow magically resolve themselves.
Love,
Sophie
Sophie Seita is a London-based artist, writer, and educator whose work explores text in its various translations into book objects, performances, videos, or other languages and embodiments. She works internationally on several creative and critical projects; most recently and together with Naomi Woo, she鈥檚 co-created a performance and community-oriented public art project, rooted in speculative and collaborative research on queer-feminist gardeners, funded by the British Council, Canada Council, Canada High Commission, and Farnham Maltings. Other work has been shown at [SPACE],听La MaMa Galleria (NYC), Printed Matter (NYC), Bold Tendencies, the Royal Academy, the Serpentine, Queer Art Projects, Flat Time House/Up Projects, Raven Row, Parasol Unit, Art Night London, the Arnolfini, Kunsthalle Darmstadt (Germany), JNU (New Delhi), Heong Gallery and Kettle鈥檚 Yard (Cambridge) and elsewhere.听She is an Assistant Professor at Boston University, co-organises the interdisciplinary Sound/Text seminar at Harvard, and is a visiting tutor on the Alternative Education Programme at Rupert in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the MSt in Writing for Performance at Cambridge University.听At the moment, she鈥檚 working on a book of experimental essays, titled听Lessons of Decal; a book on performance art, called听Literary Live Art, a translation of Uljana Wolf鈥檚听Etymological Gossip听(forthcoming with Nightboat), and various performances and collaborations.听More info on her performances, publications, and other projects can be found here:听
Organised by Dr Alice Butler (The Courtauld) as part of the 鈥淲hat a Hazard a Letter Is鈥: Correspondence in Feminist Art, Art Writing, and Art History, from Emily Dickinson to Now series.听听
