Little Poems for Viani
Where do you come from?
From the garden of stones and ponds.
Where are you going?
To the garden of stones and ponds.
Sculpture ('skʌlptʃər), n. The art of sculpting; sculpture was held
in high esteem by the Greeks. Works of sculpture: the sculptures of Michelangelo.
(Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.)
The scarecrow-amphorae of atomic man, mechanical man, sputnik man are
hideous sculptures.
Yes, what you are reading are my little poems for Viani and his sculptures.
In the dada era, a carrousel à la Raymond Roussel, the author of
How I Wrote Certain of my Books, a yard-long rubber mustache, and a navel
not much larger than a dot, were sculptures for us.
The act of opening a zipper on a beautiful woman was known as sculpting.
Due to a great deal of reasoning and intelligence, man has become a bandit
who will blow up this beautiful earth of misery.
Bonjour Viani!
Can you hear me amidst all this din?
The evil spirits, the evil geniuses of yesteryear are one-hundred-percent
innocent compared with these sputniks, loud speakers, vespas, autos, radios.
A ludicrous and stupid din of "reasonable" machines is deafening us.
Bonjour Viani!
Can you hear me amidst all this din?
The absolute madness and logic of progress will blow up the earth.
Hideous rounds.
Monster ballet.
"Mimi-folie."
Bonjour Viani!
Can you hear me?
Our conception of art, yours, mine, and that of our antisputnik, anti-atomic,
antimechanical, antireasonable friends, is...
Among these friends I could list a whole group of antireasonable Italian
artists. (I'll limit myself to naming Minassian, who is a friend of Viani's
and mine.)
Viani's sculptures.
SYMMETRICAL MIRAGE THE DREAM OF A PLANT IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
ELEGANT DREAMS GRAFTED ON TO WALKING DREAMS
MIRRORS OF SWOONS AND SWANS
RHYMES ON THE WAKE OF THE SUN
NAKED DOLLS WITHOUT TONGUES OR CLAWS
Viani's sculptures are like mine but different.
Viani's sculptures resemble mine the way an antimechanical man resembles
another antimechanical man.
They have affinities, conformities, connections, and relations.
Has the era of recreating man in stone, metal, and wood returned?
Will immediate sculpture replace the portrait of him who is responsible
for all our misery-- reasonable man?
I hope it does.
Is the art of our era religious?
I think it is.
By which I don't mean to say that we are going to portray God the way
Michelangelo did, I simply mean that we are going to abide by the
commandment: "Thou shalt make no graven image..."
Viani's sculptures are neither analyses, nor imitation, nor artifice,
nor evil spells; they are existences, entities.
TENDERNESS OF APPEARANCE
MELODIES OF WINDJAMMERS
Where do you come from?
From the garden of constellations of stones and ponds.
Where are you going?
To the garden of constellations of stones and ponds.
CANOPY OF WINGS
BIRD-FLAMES
DIURNAL ARMORS
PLANTS WITH LONG HUMAN TRESSES
JAPANESE HUMMING
BACK TO 1957
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