Propagate online zine cover, courtesy of Catalyst Arts Belfast, 2020
‘The Disappearing Wall’ For ‘Propagate’,
Catalyst Arts and The Geothe Institute
The workshops worked to manipulate ‘grammar, syntax, even vocabulary, so as to write anew with no apparent sense or subject’. The method uses an initial borrowed base text, which is edited and manipulated through a method resembling automatic writing. The resulting text writes from a collective subconscious space and removes the author from the work.
In the final text, the resulting text combines analytical art criticism with a poem created from this method. The initial text was formed this poem was created from lines collected from the ‘Disappearing Wall’. The resulting mixed form of analytical writing with the poem is intended to mirror the ‘Disappearing Wall’ installation itself.
The following text was produced through and for Catalyst Arts’ Propagate exhibition and public programme of events. The programme focused on themes of ‘collaboration, writing and performance’ as points of departure. The subsequent texts were published in an online publication ‘Propagate’ available to read on the Catalyst Arts Website. The following text was inspired by a workshop with Kevin Breathnach. It was written around the joint Catalyst/Geothe Institute installation; ‘The Disappearing Wall’ which was installed at Titanic Slipways, Belfast.
The workshop, based on Breathnach's newest work ‘Morphing’, explored strategies and methods to escape the writers own unconscious rules of language.