les
échiquiers
effrontés
Mark
Young
2018
Luna
Bisonte Prods
$16.00
27
pp
Review
by Clara B. Jones*
“Derrida,
of course is the primary proponent of bricolage which, more than
anything else, is the term I would use to best describe my poetry.”
Mark Young
Mark
Young's new collection is an experimental work. Many articles and
books have attempted to answer the question, “What does
'experimental literature' mean?” The Russian Formalist, Viktor
Shklovsky, proposed that experimental art is a technical “device
for making strange” and that experimental writing draws “attention
to the use of common language in such a way as to alter one's
[sensation and] perception of an easily understandable object or
concept.” I hesitate to categorize les
échiquiers
effrontés
out of respect for the subjective and improvisational process
employed in its creation. Here, I intend to share my own reading of
the text rather than attempt to decipher any intent or message on the
author's part.
Mark
Young is a highly-regarded writer living in Australia who has
produced dozens of books. He has been featured in jacket
2
and other venues, as well as, by the Poetry Foundation. Editor of the
online journal, Otoliths,
Young promotes innovative poetry, visual poetry [“vispo”], and
artwork. The improvisational meters and rhythms of jazz characterize
Young's work, and William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Ursula Le
Guin, and Jorge Luis Borges are among his literary influences. On the
back cover of les
échiquiers
effrontés,
the author provides a prose poem about his inspiration for the book:
“[Marcel] Duchamp's Nude came eddying down the staircase carrying a
chessboard and some sort of dictionary. 'Your move,' she said.”...“I
never won again. A readymade Mark, he called me.” The book has
been summarized as “conceptual and surrealist visual poetry
constructed on chessboard grids,” and, by highlighting Duchamp's
Surrealism, Young makes clear that his collection is a product of
unconscious processes.
Chessboards
constitute the dominant element of the book, providing coherence and
unification of 24 visual texts, in addition to, one erased quote (by
the military officer [cum
strategist] and writer, François
de La Rochefoucauld) and two visual devices—one based on a poem by
artist-poet-sculptor, Hans Arp (p 15) and, the other, a reworking of
one detail of the painting, “Mona Lisa” (p 27). A chessboard is
an 8 x 8 grid of squares upon which two persons play a game of
strategy to “checkmate” an opponent's King. In the abstract, the
board may be viewed as a map or table and the squares as fields or
cells, respectively. Young positions words, images, memes,
photographs, or other visuals in cells that can stand alone or in
relation to one another. Similarly, each chessboard can relate to
others—or, not—enhancing imagination, playfulness, and
complexity. The chessboard, also, can be divided into strips or
diagonals, permitting additional visual, interpretive, or other,
permutations. Individual images may repeat in one or another way.
Nelson Mandela, for instance, is mentioned in Young's prose poem, and
the politician's photograph appears in a cell on page 16. Repetition,
most notably associated with Gertrude Stein's writing, is a common
hallmark of experimental literature.
Close
“reading” of les
échiquiers
effrontés
reveals multiple layers and scales. One might view each chessboard as
a table with mathematical qualities since each cell [square] has a
numerical identity. Thus, the upper left-hand square can be
quantified as, Row 1, Column 1, and so on. Also, cells surrounding
images may be viewed as frames, just as the chessboard, itself,
frames the complete composition which is, in effect, a construction
of pictures within pictures. Variation and flexibility characterize
the text, surrendering freedom of interpretation to the reader, as
all Postmodern creations do.
Titles
may or may not relate to particular grids. Often, a title repeats
words in corner squares. In a few cases, titles appear to have no
relation to the compositions to which they refer. Young's inclination
to uncouple titles and works is a convention that seems designed to
give each component singularity or authority on its own, without
interdependence. An interesting feature of the elements superimposed
(seemingly at random) upon squares is that, in addition to the colors
themselves, many have multiple meanings. For example, “Persephone”
is both Queen of the Underworld, as well as, an analogue synthesizer.
Similarly, “sigil,” a word used in Young's prose poem, is a
symbol, sign, or seal and an e-book editor. “SMURF” is a comic
character, as well as, a symbol of freedom. Duchamp is a chess
player and an artist. The symbolic importance of Duchamp to les
échiquiers
effrontés
cannot be overestimated since the Surrealist-as-chess player is a
strategist as was La Rochefoucauld, and, like Young, an artist who
minimized the boundaries between art and life.
Young
joins a long tradition of artists employing the chessboard in visual,
or, in this case, vispo, works, generally, in depictions of opponents
playing the game. Used as an avant
garde
device, however, the chessboard has a Cubist quality seen most
famously in the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky (e.g., Compositions X
and XIII, “Decisive Pink,” “Continuous Line,” and “Small
Dream in Red”). Young's inventiveness is apparent in each component
of les
échiquiers
effrontés,
as well as, throughout the book as a whole. This collection is a tour
de force
demonstrating that his reputation as a noteworthy innovator is well
deserved. I am eager to experience where Young's imagination and
compositional abilities take us next.
*Published
January 2019 in Entropy
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