Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language

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  • Introduction
  • Contemporary Works
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  • Selected Projects
    • Tauba Auerbach
    • Paulina Olowska
    • Nora Schultz
  • Dial-a-Poem
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    • Henri Chopin
    • Paul Elliman
    • Karl Holmqvist
    • Kurt Schwitters
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Untitled 2008 (John Giorno Reads)

Rirkrit Tiravanija. untitled 2008 (john giorno reads). 2008

Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thai, b. Argentina, 1961). untitled 2008 (john giorno reads). 2008. 16mm film, 11 reels, 10 hours 6 min., transferred to digital format, black and white, sound. Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York. © Rirkrit Tiravanija

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In 2008, Tiravanija asked John Giorno (whose work Dial-a-Poem is included in this exhibition) to perform excerpts from five decades of his poetry for the camera. Filmed on location at Giorno Poetry Systems (on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan), the work constitutes a spoken-word anthology of the indefatigable poet’s entire career to date. Highlights include “Pornographic Poem” (1965), “Suicide Sutra” (1973), “The Death of William Burroughs” (1997), and “Thanx 4 Nothing” (2006).