20x20 magazine issue 8

20x20

magazine

issue eight | 2012

20x20 magazine issue eight London, 2012 ISSN 1757-9007 Editors | Giovanna Paternò, Francesca Ricci www.20x20magazine.com | info@20x20magazine.com All rights reserved Copyright Š 20x20 magazine and all contributors Ed.

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Cover image: Carla Chait, Agapanthus Black Magic l, 2012

20x20 magazine issue eight

contents

Welcome to issue eight of 20x20 magazine, a

visions | Topp & Dubio, Insomnia

2

square platform for writings, visuals and cross-

visions | Jon Delgado, Growing Dark

8

bred projects. The works in this issue have been

words | Angela Pe単aredondo, Lady Named Zoa

9

assembled around the meta-words INSOMNIA

visions | Jon Delgado, Faithful Shadows

10

BOUQUET, to which the artists and authors

words | Janis Butler Holm, Florilegium

11

have responded in very different ways. The aim

visions | Jose Braithwaite, Binah

12

is to bring together interesting contributions and

words| Clancy Noakes, No Escape From Mt. Moon

15

create a collection of pieces with no expiry date.

words | Michael Tavizon, The Green Slime

16

We would like to thank all contributors for their

visions | Willy Conley, White Elk Motel

17

work that inspire us to put together and publish

visions | Willy Conley, Beltway Coffeeshop

18

this magazine.

visions | Willy Conley, Terrace Motel

21

blender | Nina E. Larsen, Insomnia Bouquet

22

visions | Ben Thompson, Fyne English Surrogate

23

Francesca and Giovanna, London 2012

(Nashonal Trust Collection) We believe in good faith that all content published in this issue has been authorised for, however if you think that your copyrighted work has been reproduced in our magazine without authorisation in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify us by e-mail: info@20x20magazine.com.

contributors | biographies

24

visions | Walid Siti, The Seven Sisters

26

A special thanks to dalla Rosa Gallery who sponsored the printing of this issue and HATO Press for their collaboration.

www.dallarosagallery.com

www.hatopress.net

There is a small Indonesian restaurant in our home town that we like very much. It’s not the food, but the physical space and atmosphere that attracts us very strongly. In an attempt to understand this force, we started making photographs of every little detail we liked. After a while we thought that sleeping would be a good method to become one with the place.

Several times we have tried to spend the night in the restaurant. But without success. We never succeeded to keep our eyes closed for a long period of time. We still don’t know what dreams this place could evoke.

(Topp & Dubio)

20x20 magazine | page 10

words

florilegium Janis Butler Holm

blender

A table and a poodle are very likely roundness.

visions

Pieces of order conspire as belief.

The gristle of whiskey may harbor a comedy.

Diamonds at noon mark the course of despair.

Banks bear the grudge of sacred arithmetic.

Muscular vinyl will seldom return.

An aluminum rod is the Europe of furniture.

Some pleasures ache for a wisdom routine.

An abandoned procedure names its own widow.

Fact-hurried promises smell like defeat.

Caution neatly swerves inside a definition.

The cleverest phantoms are paler than day.

opposite: Jon Delgado, Faithful Shadows

page 11 | 20x20 magazine

Jose Braithwaite,

words blender

the green slime Michael Tavizon Monday, 18 April 2011.

I hear the alarm sound, 6:15 a.m., knowing I couldn’t have slept more than two hours. My comforter entombs me

beneath its folds, and I can’t bring myself to reach out toward my nightstand and hit the snooze. Time passes in waves,

visions

breaking against my consciousness. An hour is gone in a single moment, and my mother pulls off the covers, disturbing my resting place. Before she can hurry me out of bed, I jump up and walk swiftly past her, realizing that my class would begin in 45 minutes and campus was an hour drive away.

I am driving past the gate attendant and onto Lot B. Hairs are standing straight on the back of my neck, and my knees

feel weak, but the fear doesn’t reach past my body, as my emotions and thoughts are drained from lack of sleep. I don’t remember the drive at all, though I somehow arrived in time for my 8 a.m. class. Another wave hits, and eight hours pass.

I hear the chimes of the landmark bell tower penetrate the thin walls of the small classroom, signaling the end of the class – my last of the day. As I pass through the doorway, I feel myself being submerged once more. My feet come too close to the floor, and I fall hard onto the stiff carpet. People rush around me, pulling me out from under the wave. They lead me further down the hallway, seating me into a lounge chair with shouts of are you okay? and should we call the health center?. I put my hands up pleadingly, and respond: No, no, don’t bother. Please, I’m fine. No, I won’t be driving. I live on campus.

It’s late, so I enter the house quietly. I hadn’t meant to lie. I planned to stay in the Student Union Building; but

somehow, I had driven back home. I don’t know the time, but it’s completely dark downstairs. I climb the stairs slowly, travel to my bed, and lay down softly without turning on a light. It’s so dark, I can barely see the window in the center of the wall to my left, and I wonder how long it will be till daybreak.

Tuesday, 19 April 2011.

I watch the sun slowly stretch across my bed, till the light, shining through the window beside my mattress, reaches my

eyes to blind me. Finally, I hear the alarm, 6:15 a.m. I haven’t slept. My ears pulse painfully at the slightest noise. As I walk down the hallway toward the bathroom, the creaking of the floor echoes loudly through the house, and as I climb into the tub, the shower head spouts off a waterfall of noise. The walls collapse at the sound of a fist hammering on the bathroom door.

How long are you going to be in there? It’s nearly seven, you need to get going.

The drive, my classes, the minutes, my day: they all drift through my senses without leaving an impression. American

Literature II: Walt Whitman so long refused to change his socks that they stuck to his feet. Intro to Psych: A vindictive cycle, the stress caused by insomnia often makes it that much harder to sleep. Anatomy: a person will die from total lack of sleep

20x20 magazine | page 16

opposite: Willy Conley, White Elk Motel

Ben Thompson, Fyne English Surrogate (Nashonal Trust Collection)

contributors

|

issue eight

Jose Braithwaite’s images are the source of

Jon Delgado was born in Chelmsford, where he grew up.

biotechnological activations of existence and events in

He studied Art at Colchester Institute, before completing

the dimensions of space and time. Jose believes that the

a BA Fine Art Degree at Bath Spa University. Jon lives

understanding of the known universe is in Nature.

in London, often returning to his home town and surrounding areas, which has a strong resonance, retaining

Janis Butler Holm lives in Athens, Ohio, where she has

memories and still providing artistic inspiration.

served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal.

Her essays, stories, poems, and performance pieces

Nina E. Larsen is from the Lofoten Islands in Norway. She

have appeared in small-press, national, and international

is a stubborn dreamer, a sailor, a fisherman and a poet.

magazines. Her plays have been produced in the U.S.,

When she is forced back to reality, she is a banker. She

Canada, and England.

has published work in Norway, and the US, been chosen

by Billy Collins for an Honorary Mention in the 2012 Fish

Carla Chait lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is

Poetry Prize, and holds an MA in French Literature from

studying English at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Sorbonne Paris/Oslo University. Recently published or

She has had literary and visual work published in print and

forthcoming in The Fish Anthology 2012, Poetry Quarterly,

online.

Fourandtwenty.com, Dance Macabre and Indigo Rising.

Willy Conley is a Registered Biological Photographer who

Clancy Noakes accidentally stabbed himself in the hand

has worked a number of years in the field of biomedical

as a child, and was temporarily attached to a chopping

photography. A graduate of the Rochester Institute of

board. He lives in Wollongong, New South Wales and

Technology, his photographs have been published in

studies some things at the local university. He is acutely

American Photographer, Industrial Photography, Deaf

aware that koalas have two penises.

World, Rio Grande Review, Kaleidoscope, 34th Parallel, and The Antietam Review. Although no longer working as

Born in Iloilo City, Philippines, Angela Peñaredondo is

a medical photographer, he continues to enjoy shooting,

a poet and visual artist living in Los Angeles, California.

exhibiting, and publishing photos. He is currently a

She studied visual arts in San Francisco State University

professor of Theatre Arts at Gallaudet University in

and Queensland College of Art in Australia. Currently, she

Washington, D.C.

is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing from University

20x20 magazine | page 24

California of Riverside. She has a professional background

Fundamentally a video and performance artist, Ben

in art management and curatorial practice. During times

Thompson has shifted focus to creating two-dimensional

of drought, she fiends for her daily dose of black and

collaged imagery. He mixes the element of chance

white cult flicks, discarded dada and the tunes that hit

inherent in the technique with a personalized, cynical

hard, dark and galactic.

world-view and irreverent sense of humor, often portraying fantastical scenes of primitive and selfish succumbing in

Walid Siti was born in Duhok, Kurdistani Iraq, in 1954,

our civilized moralistic society.

and lives in London. He has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally. He was part of the Pavilion of Iraq

Topp & Dubio is a multidisciplinary artist duo who live

at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2011 and of the recent

and work in The Hague, The Netherlands and Kaliningrad,

group exhibition ‘Hajj’ at the British Museum, London

Russia. Topp & Dubio study and scrutinize reality from

(2011). Recent solo shows include ‘The River Zei’ Rose

a conceptual starting point, often arising from their own

Issa Projects (2011), ‘Silent Mountains’, Duhok Gallery,

curiosity and their desire to explore parallel worlds.

Kurdistan, Iraq (2010); ‘Walid Siti’, XVA Gallery, Dubai

Topp & Dubio have shown their work in The Netherlands,

UAE (2009); and ‘Land on Fire’, Rose Issa Projects at the

Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil,

Leighton House Museum, London (2008). Siti’s work is in

Indonesia, Hong Kong, United States, Canada, Russia and

several public collections, including The British Museum,

Ukraine.

The Imperial War Museum, and Victoria & Albert Museum

www.topp-dubio.nl

in London; The National Gallery of Amman, Jordan; and The World Bank and The Iraq Memory Foundation, both in Washington DC.

www.walidsiti.com Michael Patrick Tavizon is a senior English major at Biola University, and a recovering insomniac. He has published poetry in The Inkslinger and is the 2011-2012 President of the Alpha Zeta Theta chapter of the international English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta.

page 25 | 20x20 magazine

dalla Rosa Gallery 121 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5BY www.dallarosagallery.com

20x20

magazine

issue eight | 2012

20x20 magazine issue eight London, 2012 ISSN 1757-9007 Editors | Giovanna Paternò, Francesca Ricci www.20x20magazine.com | info@20x20magazine.com All rights reserved Copyright Š 20x20 magazine and all contributors Ed.

/100

Cover image: Carla Chait, Agapanthus Black Magic l, 2012