Long hand Sue Tompkins
LemonMelon 2011 | £25 | Softback | 74pp | 29.7 x 42 cm |
ISBN 978 1 908260 00 0 | Numbered limited edition of 250 copies
It all started with a blue Blantex ring binder packed with handwritten notes.
Jotted down with a variety of pens on different scraps of paper none of them were actually bound into the ring binder; some of them were contained in envelopes.
Sue told me that this was just a small selection of the notes she collected over the years. These notes consist of segmented language, de-contextualised fragments of conversations she overheard or was part of, which she describes as ‘thoughts, statements, views, descriptions, feelings, emotions and things that are triggered by actual events’. They represent the raw material of her work before she edits and integrates them into her typewritten and / or performance work.
Through numerous conversations by mail, email and in person, we narrowed
down the selection and defined a specific order. Throughout this process I could hear her performing the words as I read through them, feeling their rhythm
emerge through her handwriting, embodying the rapid and rhythmic reading
of her performances.
The book can be seen as a script for a performance, in which the reader becomes the performer of Sue’s words assisted by the size and weight of the book and page, the movement of turning the pages, the position of the text on the page, the thickness of her pen stroke and the size and speed of her writing.
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Copies of Long hand can be purchased from selected bookshops or online here (including £5 postage and packaging UK only). If you are ordering from outside of the UK please contact us so we can find out the exact postage for your country.
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