In Sculptor’s Notebook, originally written in 1985, the artist Pushpamala N evaluates the artistic practice that she had been developing until then. Centred largely around themes of adolescence and womanhood, her sculptures had won her the Sixth Triennale Award and the National Award. While the sculptures take centre stage, in this dissertation can be found a longing to move further towards performance, humour, and play-acting—themes that the artist would go on to develop over the following decades. Both an artist’s statement and a notebook-format prophecy, Sculptor’s Notebook charts the motivations, struggles, and desires of the artist’s multi-medium practice.

Published for the first time by Reliable Copy and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sculptor’s Notebook was written as part of Pushpamala N’s Master’s in Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. The complete facsimile of this dissertation is accompanied by a recent interview with the artist by Nihaal Faizal and Sarasija Subramanian.

Born in Bangalore in 1956, Pushpamala N has been called “the most entertaining artist-iconoclast of contemporary Indian art.” In her sharp and witty work as a photo- and video-performance artist, sculptor, writer, curator, and provocateur, and in her collaborations with writers, theatre directors, and filmmakers, she seeks to subvert the dominant cultural and intellectual discourse. She is known for her strongly feminist work, for her rejection of authenticity, and her embracing of multiple realities. Pushpamala exhibits widely in India and internationally, and speaks often at seminars and conferences.

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“Cher Mohamed,

Tu ne me connais pas, je ne t’ai jamais vu, mais je prends la liberté de t’écrire cette lettre pour
t’annoncer ce livre, un hommage à ton œuvre, à ta prose sanguine, ta parole à jamais insoumise, à
tes refuges de Tanger, les stations de tes odyssées intérieures, ces endroits minuscules et sacrés, les déserts où se récoltent les mots et le sens.

Un livre de plus, me diras-tu, qui fait de toi cette icône figée, que tu n’aurais probablement pas
aimé. Et de plus, c’est le petit Français des Colonnes qui te l’annonce. J’entends déjà ta colère, de
celles que tu avais fameuses. Mais, tu sais, je n’aurais pas pris la plume, si Abdellatif, Rachid, Tarik, qui furent tes amis et aujourd’hui les seuls garants de ta parole, ne me l’avaient demandé.

Mais il te faut bien accepter cet ouvrage, cet hommage qui est aussi une déclaration d’amour,
même si tu dois trouver cela bien poussiéreux. Sache seulement qu’on te lit, on t’écoute mieux
qu’avant, on t’imite maladroitement. Ils sont nombreux, tu sais, à te traduire, à te publier dans toutes les langues, à t’admirer plus que de mesure, à sonder tes univers merveilleux, à te suivre sur le chemin caillouteux de la littérature. C’est pour eux que je t’écris.

Je ne te connais pas, tu ne m’as jamais vu, mais je sais tous les lieux où tu rodes en bienveillant
fantôme, les bars aux vitres opaques, les venelles à l’ombre fraîche de Bni Idder, les pensions
accueillantes et discrètes où tu as refait mille fois le monde à ton image.

Je ne sais que l’obscurité de l’écriture, la lumière des mots. Et crois moi, j’essaye de les crier aussi
fort que tu l’as fait, pour que rien ne s’apaise, qu’enfin tout devienne chant.

Simon-Pierre Hamelin
14 julliet 2015”
(Extrait du livre)

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arbitrary presents Delirious Cartographies (arbitrary13) by composer, improviser and synthesist Richard Scott. Part of the Danish imprint’s Framework editions, this release includes three pieces on 12” vinyl and six printed drawings – as well as a text by Scott – published as a limited edition portfolio folder.

“These compositions capture aspects of my personal sonic experience of specific times and places. Extending beyond my usual work with analogue synthesizer, these pieces open the doors and windows to the outside world, incorporating field and live recordings made in various locations and situations. Rather than intending any clear sense of narrative, these are molecular dialogues between elements and geographies which do not necessarily share organic points of connection, other than my own incomplete experience and memory of them.”

The final piece 6 Graphic Etudes (included as digital prints) is intended as a set of visual / sonic sketches, each of which describes a discrete kind of movement or texture. These may have a variety of uses; as musical exercises, as scores, combined as parts of scores, or simply as stand-alone visual propositions / artworks.

The pieces were composed between 2017 and 2021 at Sound Anatomy, Berlin, Spektrum Berlin, EMS Stockholm, NOVARS, University of Manchester, the Electronic Music Studios, University of Huddersfield and in Boliqueime, Portugal.

As well as various microphones, hydrophones and recorders, the instruments used on this recording are mostly analogue and modular synthesizers: Hordijk Modular, Serge Modular, EMS Synthi A, various Eurorack modules, Buchla Thunder midi controller, Oberheim Xpander, Clavia Nord Micro Modular, CataRT and maxMSP, Rob Hordijk Blippoo box. On Thunder, actually bicycles… Axel Dörner plays a Holton Firebird trumpet with additional live-sampling via maxMSP and a controller interface developed by Sukandar Kartadinata.

Written & produced by Richard Scott. Drawings by Richard Scott. Graphic design by Mads Emil Nielsen. Mastered & cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin. Thanks to Axel Dörner, Rob Hordijk, Beatriz Ferreyra, Ricardo Climent, David Berezan, Joseph Hyde, Richard Whalley, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Tim Scott, Andy Adkins, Electric Spring Festival, Sines & Squares Festival, Basic Electricity and Sound Anatomy.

Released 2 September 2022

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Catalogue from Patti Smith’s exhibition and poetry reading on the occasion of Arthur Rimbaud’s 123rd birthday (October 20, 1854) at the Galerie Veith Turske on October 20, 1977. The book contains images of Smith’s paintings and drawings as well as photographs and poetry, in English and German.

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