Seen from Here Writing in the Lockdown
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Seen from Here Writing in the Lockdown Edited by Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat Seen from Here Writing in the Lockdown Edited by Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat Seen from Here Writing in the Lockdown Published by Unstable Object, June 2020 ISBN: 978-1-8380422-0-2 Edited by: Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat Design: David Caines Contributors: Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Caroline Bergvall, Aisha Mango Borja, Season Butler, Hester Chillingworth, Augusto Corrieri, Will Eaves, Tim Etchells, Rachel Genn, Chris Goode, M. John Harrison, Vlatka Horvat, Wendy Houstoun, Sophie Jung, Andrea Mason, Harun Morrison, Courttia Newland, Katharine Norbury, Lara Pawson, Deborah Pearson, Fernando Sdrigotti, Maria Sledmere, Marvin Thompson, Selina Thompson, Rupert Thomson, Chris Thorpe, Tony White, Eley Williams, Aaron Williamson, Jacob Wren © Unstable Object / Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat Individual contributions © the authors All rights reserved. The editors would like to thank: David Caines, Clair Chamberlain/The Corner Shop, Live Art Development Agency, all contributors 100% of proceeds from the sale of Seen from Here: Writing in the Lockdown will be donated to the Trussell Trust, a UK food bank charity. Everyone involved in the making of this book has volunteered their time and labour towards raising funds for the Trussell Trust. If you have acquired the book via peer sharing, please donate directly at: trusselltrust.org Unstable Object London, UK unstableobject.com Image on the cover and frontispiece: Vlatka Horvat, Pages (Punctured), 2012 All opinions expressed in the material contained within this publication are those of the artists and authors and not necessarily those of the publishers. No part of this book may be printed, reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from copyright owners. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library. Introduction AN INSTRUMENT Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat 4 Tim Etchells 125 FROM BEGINNING TO END Deborah Pearson 145 WHAT STUCK Season Butler 11 SIXTY SCENES FOR SIXTY DAYS OF QUARANTINE Selina Thompson 155 BECAUSE EVERYTHING IN THIS DAMNED WORLD Lara Pawson 17 LON CHANEY SPEAKS! Will Eaves 177 WE ARE THE KING OF VENTILATORS Chris Thorpe 31 LIBRARY NUDE Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press 185 SMILE, CLAP, DANCE, SING Andrea Mason 39 THOUGHTS ABOUT A BUILDING CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC Katharine Norbury 193 BREATHLESS, THE PALE Courttia Newland 45 YOU KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING OUT THERE Tony White 203 RECOVERY STUDIES FOR LITTLE BURNT HANDS Chris Goode 57 SABIO Marvin Thompson 233 DAYS Aisha Mango Borja 67 AS FAR AWAY FROM THE BODY AS YOU CAN REACH Vlatka Horvat 239 GET LOST Wendy Houstoun 73 TOGETHER (PART 1) Caroline Bergvall 261 NO STAGE, NO WORLD Augusto Corrieri 93 IDEAS FOR PANDEMIC SHORT STORIES Jacob Wren 267 UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK Maria Sledmere 103 THE STALL OF WARM HANDSHAKES Aaron Williamson 273 MARKET Rachel Genn 117 I SEARCH FOR AN ARTWORK WITH THESE 25 QUALITIES Hruna Mrrisono 295 J CARETAKER Hester Chillingworth 299 LAND LOCKED M. John Harrison 323 CIGARETTES AND TUNA Rupert Thomson 331 EVENING Sophie Jung 343 WHAT (NOT) TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS WHEN YOU ARE NERVOUS Eley Williams 351 AND THEY SHALL CLAP Fernando Sdrigotti 365 Contributors’ Notes 373 2 3 The idea for Seen from Here came from our Introduction conversations around this situation, and from our wish to put artistic and literary labour to the benefit of other people. Everyone who has contributed a text or worked on the book in any other capacity has donated their time and 100% of the money raised through sales of the Seen from Here: Writing in the Lockdown is a collection of collection will be going to the food bank charity the stories, flash fiction, poems, autofiction and conceptual Trussell Trust. writing gathered during the April and May 2020 Our first move putting the book together was Covid-19 lockdown, bringing together a wide-ranging contacting writers working in different areas of practice, group of UK-based writers, poets, performance makers connected only by our conviction that in combination and artists. they’d provide diverse, vivid and compelling material. As editors we began work on the book in early April, The final list of contributors – and the extraordinary not long into the UK lockdown. We were – like other strength of their work and engagement with the people lucky enough to be able to do so – isolating project – has stunned us and we’re hugely grateful as far as possible, working from home, busy with to all who have so generously given long and short cancelling or rearranging projects and developing pieces for the book: Fiona Banner aka The Vanity anxieties about the future, meanwhile worrying about Press, Caroline Bergvall, Aisha Mango Borja, Season the health and situation of family and friends, work Butler, Hester Chillingworth, Augusto Corrieri, Will colleagues and neighbours. We were also mindful that Eaves, Rachel Genn, Chris Goode, M. John Harrison, it was a privilege of sorts to be able to stay in isolation, Wendy Houstoun, Sophie Jung, Andrea Mason, Harun a zone of relative safety and security that many others Morrison, Courttia Newland, Katharine Norbury, could not easily create or afford for themselves. And it Lara Pawson, Deborah Pearson, Fernando Sdrigotti, was clear to us too that the epidemic, amplified by the Maria Sledmere, Marvin Thompson, Selina Thompson, UK government’s ideological disinclination, inaction Rupert Thomson, Chris Thorpe, Tony White, Eley and ineptitude, was already making poverty and Williams, Aaron Williamson and Jacob Wren. precarity more severe for some of the most vulnerable people in society. 4 5 Most of the contributions in Seen from Here are new – in early June – means that it’s the only one which – written or created in the strange interzone of the makes reference to the murder of George Floyd by the first few weeks of the lockdown. Some – works by Minneapolis police. Will Eaves, Katharine Norbury, Lara Pawson and Beyond the above it’s perhaps worth stating the obvious Rupert Thomson – are excerpts from current works about this collection – namely, that while some pieces in progress, and only one piece in the collection – by in it reflect directly or indirectly on the lockdown Jacob Wren – has been published before, on Jacob’s experience and the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, blog. We read it there in early March, and it stuck with others step sideways to offer glimpses of past events, us as a kind of perfect metatext for this collection. Jacob, other realities and absolutely fictional landscapes. In any an exception to prove a rule, is also the only writer case, aside from the fact of their inclusion here, there’s included in the book who is based outside the UK, in no desire on our part to impose a link between the Toronto. A couple of the texts – by Wendy Houstoun fiction writers, artists, poets and others present in the and Caroline Bergvall – had a previous life as works collection – we’re as excited by the radical differences in another medium; as a podcast and as a composition of content and approach in evidence as we are by the for voice and breath, respectively. Our own texts for accidental connections, dialogues, frictions and synergies the book break the unwritten law of good taste that between the pieces included here. What’s common editors (and curators) should refrain from including ground is elemental – that in this time writers and artists their own work in things they organise, though in this working with language are putting one word in front instance we are hoping that the charitable aim of the of another, stringing things together, looking for new book might mitigate our self-inclusion. One of the ways to map and navigate the space, real or psychic, that last texts added to Seen from Here, comprises selected we’re living in now. material from Hester Chillingworth’s Caretaker, their lockdown installation for the Royal Court Theatre in As well as the contributors, several other people have London. Running from start of May and still live at the been instrumental in helping us realise the project and time we are writing this text, the work – streamed from we are thankful to all of them. Stefan Tobler at And the theatre 24 hours a day – shows the empty stage, Other Stories gave us valuable advice; Lois Keidan the image of which is accompanied by a series of short at Live Art Development Agency agreed to sell the texts spoken by a computer voice, delivered at irregular book on Unbound, LADA’s online shop; and Clair intervals. Our relatively late inclusion of this piece Chamberlain at The Corner Shop offered her pro bono 6 7 support with the media comms. Early on in the process we approached the designer David Caines who readily accepted our invitation to collaborate with us on the book, bringing his brilliant design eye, attention to detail and playful approach to make Seen from Here look so absolutely sharp. According to the Trussell Trust website, the period from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK – from the last two weeks in March – was ‘its network’s busiest ever period, with 81% more emergency food parcels being given out across the UK, including 122% more parcels going to children, compared to the same period in 2019.’ It’s a brutal and no doubt ongoing situation and we’re hopeful that with the support of readers this book can play a small part in contributing to the Trussell Trust’s amazing work, bringing much needed resources to the people who need them.