Newsletter #20 / January 25th
BADGER INSPO / Madonna / Robyn / Suzan Pitt / Kevin Killian
The first newsletter of the
Y E A R is bound to
the idea of
bowls & baskets
and how i cannot help but put all
things in them.
Just kidding — NO it’s not! That’s something i’m working on, though. Nadia laughs at all the bowls in my room + right now i am staring at eight baskets.
Next week’s newsletter will be curated by Miri Badger, in celebration of her upcoming installation in the FORA / squared window. Opening event information can be found here,
& in celebratory anticipation of Badger’s star turn, this week’s newsletter will be an outsider’s inspiration divination of her work.
Madonna’s Vogue / 1990 MTV Awards
Further reading on Madonna can be found at this
I N C R E D I B L E
news source — todayinmadonnahistory.com
where we learn that on January 12th, 1993, she was sitting next to Christopher Walken on the steamy set of Bad Girl
Robyn’s Dancing On My Own (2010)
The long read: How Robyn transformed pop — Laura Snapes (The Guardian, 2018)
Selling an attitude of independence has been crucial to the allure of most major female pop stars since Madonna, but there is a chasm between the carefully curated appearance of sovereignty – a mainstay of branded feminism – and actually running your business. “Getting that control takes a lot of stamina, and a lot of drilling, drilling, drilling,” said Robyn. Daring to ask questions and revealing your lack of knowledge makes you insecure, even vulnerable. “It’s not a sexy process, although the result is, of course, something that’s very desirable for people. I think getting there has been something that I’m admired for by the industry, but people that have been very close to it, they haven’t been very impressed.” — (Laura Snapes, 2018)
The Joys of Looking Out a Stranger’s Window (Patricia Marks, 2020)
An Unopened First Edition Set of Pokémon Cards, Deemed ‘the Pinnacle of Pokémon Collecting,’ Just Fetched $408,000 at Auction (Sarah Cascone, 2021)
Trends to Watch in 2021: Colored Pencil Revival (Shannon Lee, 2021)
Suzan Pitt’s Asparagus (1979)
Fever Dreamer: Suzan Pitt’s Feminist Fantasias (Haden Guest, 2019)
Flowers and vegetables pulse, slither, and take dirigible flight; a horse becomes a pampered, petulant lover; a diminutive porcelain mouse transforms into a muscled superhero to save a beleaguered heroine: these are just some of the arresting images in the films of artist and animator Suzan Pitt, whose lushly sensuous, oneiric, and psychosexually charged work created a vital link between two cinematic worlds. (Haden Guest, 2019)
The Flowering Face — Kevin Killian (1997)
He read all his poems twice, thinking,
“they did not hear them the first time.”
They hired a team of gay men who do this
gardening gig to do it for them
If his body rots in the mouth of maggots
let’s go to Zuni
Down his throat
poured a river of beer and rum
In the coercive moonlight of Diamond Heights
his red hair, gold
He’d like the symbolism
and of course the spring flowers
He was subtle, always said, “Hello my friend,”
as though he knew us better than indeed he did
If the words I wrote, and throw up into the sky, in his direction
mean what I think they do
Then deep into the black earth a post I dig, that says
retention must be paid
I found out who he really was
through the name on the bracelet, pink and white beads
A couple of guys from Ireland
passing through town and one says, “Die faggots”
If there was no poetry there would be no
toy, face, torment, healing, gladiola, prix fixe, heaven
What FORA wants
The FORA newsletter seeks to bring forward the intertextuality that we reside in, and the inextricable ways in which art and life are linked. That is an obvious point, but one that must be constantly remarked upon, as it is one we are constantly surprised by. To be reminded of these circles is to be drawn back into the fold, equipped with the tools of thinking critically and acting compassionately.
pps/FORA is developed on the land of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples