Memory and Disintegration in the work of W.G. Sebald and The Caretaker

This paper was delivered at the Resonant Edge Hauntology Symposium on the 15/06/2017. Full interviews with Grant Gee and James Leyland Kirby will be published later this summer. My talk today is about two specific forms: the writing of W.G. Sebald and the musical work of The Caretaker.  My aim is to show the links between the two, with reference to ideas of Hauntology but … Continue reading Memory and Disintegration in the work of W.G. Sebald and The Caretaker

Responses: Paul Nash’s Monster Field

As World War Two loomed, Paul Nash’s obsessions leaned towards more esoteric forms.  The landscape became a fantastical entity, the realm of old magic that had already been of much interest to the artist, but one that gradually heightened as reality darkened around him once more.  He moved more to photography as a medium in itself, as well as to take reference material for his … Continue reading Responses: Paul Nash’s Monster Field

Wanders: Longplayer (New Cross to Trinity Buoy Wharf)

“Witness, for instance, the establishment of settled ‘alternative’ or ‘independent’ cultural zones, which endlessly repeat older gestures of rebellion and contestation as if for the first time.” – Mark Fisher The Longplayer walk ghosts a route to be taken on the 21st of June for a day long walked festival of arts in celebration of Jem Finer’s work. Information on the Longplayer event, featuring an … Continue reading Wanders: Longplayer (New Cross to Trinity Buoy Wharf)

Fictions: The Horsefly

35mm photographs by Andrew Bartram and The Neptune Project Risley Moss is a wildlife reserve in Warrington famed particularly for its array of insects.  It is a reserve dominated by various dragonflies which buzz in the air, bullying many insects from the territory; an echo from a Jurassic past.  I was taken there when younger on a day that, with the help of an expert giving … Continue reading Fictions: The Horsefly

The Frozen Time Of Alain Robbe-Grillet

It was a rather surreal feeling to find that, whilst watching this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in a flat in France, the work of writer and filmmaker, Alain Robbe-Grillet, continually kept coming to mind.  At first I failed to understand what exactly it was that was bringing his typical visual and narrative ploy of human beings frozen, in front of my mind’s eye.  I soon … Continue reading The Frozen Time Of Alain Robbe-Grillet

Responses: Virginia Woolf (1912) – Vanessa Bell

A few months back, I visited the retrospective of Vanessa Bell’s paintings at Dulwich Picture Gallery.  The exhibition is still ongoing and an essential visit for anyone with a passion for those strange groups of English rebels that seemed to flourish in the arts around the Fin de siècle.  It confirmed for me Bell’s position as one of the most underrated artists from that period, … Continue reading Responses: Virginia Woolf (1912) – Vanessa Bell

Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

At the time of writing this, my book on Folk Horror is a few weeks away from being printed.  By the time you read this, however, it should be available to buy.  I’ve written about the detail of the book earlier when it was due to be published late last year.  However, I wanted to get a few words down again now that it is … Continue reading Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

Responses: Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970)

Interest in Robert Smithson’s landwork, Spiral Jetty (1970), peaked for me recently when reading Geoff Dyer’s interesting collection of travel works, White Sands (2016).   Dyer described in his chapter, entitled Time in Space, his journey to the artwork and the delayed reaction in appreciating it; in fact most of White Sands deals with the delayed and perhaps even nonexistent reaction to the finale of a … Continue reading Responses: Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970)