Devotional Cinema
Nathaniel Dorsky
Published by Tuumba Press, Berkeley, 2014, 54 pages, 13.9 × 20.1 cm, English
Price: €13 (Temporarily out of stock)

“The films of Nathaniel Dorsky blend a beauteous celebration of the sensual world with a deep sense of introspection and solitude. They are occasions for reflection and meditation, on light, landscape, time and the motions of consciousness. Their luminous photography emphasizes the elemental frisson between solidity and luminosity, between spirit and matter, while his uniquely developed montage permits a fluid and flowing experience of time. Dorsky’s films reveal the mystery behind everyday existence, providing intimations of eternity.”—Steve Polta, San Francisco Cinematheque.

In Devotional Cinema, Dorsky moves through meditations on image-moments in works by key filmmakers (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Yasujiro Ozu, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Roberto Rossellini), and arrives at the heart of what constitutes a devotional practice.

#2014 #experimentalfilm #film #michelangeloantonioni #nathanieldorsky #yasujiroozu
stanley brouwn
Published by Haubrok Projects, Berlin, 2014, poster, 20 × 26 cm, English
Price: €38

Poster produced on the occasion of the exhibition stanley brouwn at FAHRBEREITSCHAFT, Berlin, 1 May, 2014–4 April, 2015. Edition of 100.

#2014 #ephemera #haubrokfoundation #stanleybrouwn
Een leeg
Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven
Published by MER. Paper Kunsthalle, Ghent, 2014, 16 pages (b/w ill.), 20 × 26 cm, English
Price: €19

Seven selected poems by Antwerp-based artist Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, illustrated with some of the artist”s original black and white pen drawings. Limited edition of 300 copies.

#2014 #annemievankerckhoven #lucderycke #merpaperkunsthalle #poetry
Exercises in Practical Mischievery #3: What Ever Happened To Fritz Rainer?
Laura Pappa
Published by Speculative Press, Amsterdam, 2014, 16 pages w. insert (b/w ill.), 14.5 × 42 cm, English
Price: €4

Fritz Rainer (1925, Basel) became a spiritual leader in his mid-twenties guiding people through the trials of life. In 1951 he began preaching on the streets and soon enough his teachings started to attract bigger and bigger crowds. The movement rapidly developed into a cult-like entity with a large group of supporters and followers. Analysts have speculated that the real driving force behind Rainer’s popularity was his unusual not to say bizarre method of deliverance. The method, now taken on by The Rainer Plate creators, incorporated the employment of the material qualities of a CTP printing plate to give speeches all over the country. This included bizarre movements with the plate, a variety of ear-splitting sounds the plate produced, the reflection of it, not to mention the presence of an odd-sized metal sheet that in itself raised a mass furor, which eventually influenced the minds of the crowds, converting them into full-scale Rainerists.

The publication walks us through Fritz’ life and uncovers some details from his past.

#2014 #exercisesinpracticalmischievery #laurapappa
Exercises in Practical Mischievery #2: I vote for Yetta Bronstein
Laura Pappa
Published by Speculative Press, Amsterdam, 2014, 16 pages w. insert (b/w ill.), 14.5 × 42 cm, English
Price: €4

Yetta Bronstein, as a 48-year-old house-wife from the Bronx, ran for President in 1964 and again in 1968 as the candidate for the Best Party. Her slogans were “Vote for Yetta and things will get betta” and “Put a mother in the White House.”

The publication houses an interview with Alan Abel (1930), the man behind all these characters including creator of Yetta. Alan was an American prankster, writer and filmmaker who frequently appeared on television, radio and newspapers with his scandalous and provoking undertakings. During the interview the discussion seamlessly flows from one prank to another, from one juicy detail to the next. Along the way his relationship to theatre and the media are discussed, as well as his approach to work.

#2014 #exercisesinpracticalmischievery #laurapappa
Exercises in Practical Mischievery #1: Yours Truly, Edna Welthorpe
Laura Pappa
Published by Speculative Press, Amsterdam, 2014, 16 pages w. insert (b/w ill.), 14.5 × 42 cm, English
Price: €4

The lovely woman going by the name of Edna Welthorpe is known today for her stabbing theatre criticism vocalised through the pages of local newspapers but also in her personal correspondence with playhouses and playwrights from the 1940s to the 1960s in London. Mrs Welthorpe took on the role of the guardian of public morals, protesting against, in her own words, ‘outrageous contemporary creations and the production of indecent thought’ that she believed should be banned from ‘the sight of not only our children but also the common public.’

Edna Welthorpe is one of the pseudonyms of the notorious British playwright Joe Orton (1933–1967), whom Orton used as an outraged critic of his work after he had achieved fame; she was joined later by the imaginary Donald H. Hartley, an Orton booster. Right up to his death, Orton wrote letters under different pseudonyms, which he used to create mischief and argument.

The publication reproduces some of Edna’s correspondence that was first published in the book Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton by John Lahr (1978).

#2014 #exercisesinpracticalmischievery #laurapappa