special edition

Every Christmas I make Jack a special edition of one of his poems or stories. This year I picked his poem "Antigone." If you're not familiar with Greek mythology, Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. The poor woman attempted to secure a respectable burial for her brother and the King punished her by entombing her alive. Very harsh!

Jack's poem references the story obliquely by talking about a visit to a former colonial prison in Tasmania and his experience in one of the tiny cells. I've pasted the poem below. You read the left column first and then the right.

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Antigone

Tomb, bridal-chamber, eternal prison in the caverned rock, whither go to find mine own?

– R. C. Jebb

When I woke up in

the melancholy city

everything was the colour of rain        all of the garish

primaries

of the previous evening

obscured by

the pitter-patter

of dread                                          The books I was reading

dissolved into pulp

those volumes of

lapidary thoughts

intangible as fog

as that happiness                              oh so elusive

what’s new

you say

Once in Tasmania

at an old colonial prison

I walked into one of the cells             there was no-one around

so I closed the door

just to feel what it was like

I lasted two seconds

people go mad

they say                                          Imagine a room

a white room

no doors

no chairs

too narrow

to sit down                                      too low

to stand

up

my marriage bed

 *****

For this design project I decided to go for a very simple altered book, inspired by the example below from Workshop Press where Richard Killeen's Sampler catalogue, with an essay by Francis Pound, was reworked into Interiors, with an essay by Anna Miles. The original text was effaced with a marker pen and large stickers printed with the text of Miles' essay.

Here's the catalogue I'm working with:

You'll see that I'm deliberately not mentioning the artist's name in case she happens to be googling herself one day and comes across this post. It's just possible she mightn't appreciate having her catalogue cut up! The catalogue is filled with eerie circular photographs of the now empty rooms of an abandoned residential treatment facility for alcohol and drug dependency on Rotorua Island. It seemed a perfect fit for Jack's poem!

 

Firstly I cut out each page, selecting the nine pages that had an image on the front and the back.

I broke the poem into nine sections and typed each one on my trusty vintage typewriter, trying to arrange the text on windows and walls of the rooms.

I cut out the circles leaving tabs on each side

 then I taped together the tabs in sequence to form a frieze

the poem can be hung on the wall by pinning the tabs at each end

 I used the catalogue cover to make an envelope for the Antigone frieze

 and I added another room on the front with the title and Jack's name

And there you have it - Jack's 2015 Christmas edition.
I'm pretty sure he's going to love this.