http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com home of karen correia da silva Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:55:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/gorgeous-bully http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/i-dont-need-tender-mercy http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/and-i-say http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/pretender http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/saint-nothing http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/holidays-new-books-nework NU Zine #3, December 2011 Starla Bontecou Vancouver, British Columbia $6.99]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/nu-zine-3 http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/shoot-1971 http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/the-drive I just realized I forgot to post this! We released the Winter 2011-2012 catalogue for SB Publications at the end of September. This season’s offerings include a text & photographic work from ReLit award winning poet Daniel Scott Tysdal, and a mixed media art book from Canadian culture jammer ýta. From within the art collective, we’re releasing a multimedia text [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sb-publications-catalogue So lovely I just can’t handle it.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/was-i-the-wave http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/rain-the-soft-moon http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/austerity-occupy-vancouver http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/thanksgiving University of Toronto Quarterly just published its annual critical and bibliographic survey of Letters in Canada — most recently for books published during 2009 — and mentioned Steel Bananas’ 2009 assemblage Gulch: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose as an unconventional anthology aiming to aggressively critique the perceived waning of affect and trend toward heteronomy in the post-millennium world. Andrew [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/gulch-in-utqs-survey-of-letters-in-canada http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/the-monsters-in-the-room-were-all-dancing http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sb28 “If you can avoid talking about / body then do so now please” — Margaret Christakos, from Sooner, 2005. – Karen Correia Da Silva, from Virago, 2011. Vancouver, BC.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/virago http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sombre-mountains Text, collage, photography, and collaboration celebrating mimesis over a period of thirty days in 2011. Works include poetry, visual art, and documentation of public performance/ happenings in Vancouver by multidisciplinary artist Karen Correia Da Silva. Fuck Irony ISBN: 978-0-9867777-7-6 Release Date: December 2011 SB Publications 30 copies]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/fuck-irony Untitled, 2011. A random excerpt from my new sketch/collage book.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/untitled-2011 I don’t start classes until September 6th. Freedom from work + the majesty of my natural surroundings have left me very inspired. I spent my day getting my wrists acquainted with my new violin, reading about Shary Boyle, and walking through the woods.  ]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/my-august-29th This is Woodward. I bought him today. He is from Romania. He was handmade in Vasile Gliga’s workshop by some nice people who care about good quality violins. His friend, Juliette, is a french bow made from Brazil wood and horse hair. Together, they make beautiful music! Today, I taught myself how to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and tomorrow [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/latest-project Etiquette, 2011. Green College, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/etiquette http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/first-week-in-vancity It’s been a gas! I’m flying to Vancouver at 7:00am.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/goodbye-toronto I had the pleasure of designing the latest issue of the Incongruous Quarterly, straight out of Montreal. Read the science-themed poetry and prose here, and check out their blog for more content and updates.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/iq3 http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/savage-night-at-the-opera Today, I submitted bound copies of my final major research paper, with all revisions, my signed declaration page, and signatures of approval from my supervisor and second reader to the Department of English at Ryerson University. As I walked back to the MLCRC from our Program Administrator’s office, I felt overwhelmed. For a while, it felt as though it would [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/master-of-arts-degree-attained http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/were-savage-high So, I’ve officially been in Vancouver for 24 hours, and I am hopelessly, madly in love. I’ll post photos when I return, but here’s one of my shots of the Rocky Mountains from 41,000 feet:]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/i-heart-vancouver The last Scream in High Park is tonight, so make sure to head out! Here are a few few photos from SB’s Scream Literary Festival Mobile Street Mic, Variations on a Scream:]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/photos-from-the-mobile-street-mic Curran and I decided to do something entirely wholesome and low-key this Canada Day, so we took my Mom to Toronto Island to hike and watch the fireworks over the water. We walked for about eight hours around the city and the island before heading back home, where I sincerely missed the effect of the island air on my city [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/canada-day-2011 Upcoming event for the Scream Literary UnFestival: The Steel Bananas Art Collective will be meandering the streets of Toronto armed with a wagon, microphone, and camera, inviting passersby to take a moment to offer “Variations on a Scream” and/or improvisational poetry on the street. Each poet-for-a-moment will be photographed for a large piece to be presented to the Scream organizers, [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/the-scream-literary-festival So much has happened in the last two weeks. The Strangers in Paris launch went swimmingly, my brother moved and settled in to his new job as an Associate Creative Director at Mullen, and my sister Trish got engaged! The pace of change in Toronto for this last summer of mine seems to be unprecedented. Or maybe I’m just noticing [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/toronto-soul Congrats to my partner in crime and partner in life, Curran, for having his Honours BA in English Literature conferred upon him today!]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/congrats-curran People I love in the city I love. A few shots from my summer wanderings thus far:]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/summertime-begins Bernadette by Starla Bontecou. Oil paint on an antique photograph. A gift for Jeff to celebrate his recent move to Boston.  ]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/bernadette I’m going to mention Luminato in a moment, so bear with me. I must get this techno-guilt off of my chest: So, I always said I would never get a smartphone. Phone companies are evil (re: my $800 payment to Telus to cancel a ridiculous contract I naively signed), and when I saw all of those drooling teens with bad [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/luminatoiarmy I know this blog is for my peripheral work, but I just had to post some of Curran’s recent off-the-cuff drawings (with his permission, of course). Here’s Mr. Piano Sandwich Dog Samurai takes his strawberry for a stroll, and Bijou!, which I commissioned this afternoon:]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/mr-piano-sandwich-dog-samurai SB28: Translation Politics and patois. Hybrids, conversions, and mashups. Malapropisms and misspelling… We are calling for submissions of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art on the theme on translation for the twenty-eighth issue of Steel Bananas. We want to know what is lost, what is gained, what it looks and sounds like, from ekphrasis to inter-cultural dialogue. Deadline: July [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/call-for-submissions-2 I had the pleasure to design the recent anthology Strangers in Paris, launching in Toronto in late June, with NYC and Paris launches following later this year. Including Booker Prize winner John Berger, Pulitzer Prize winner Jorie Graham, Griffin Poetry Prize winner Alice Notley, and many expatriate newbies, the anthology seeks to find a new vocabulary for one of the [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/strangers-in-paris Last night Ted, Sarah, Zack, James, Curran and I met at the TIFF Lightbox to see the recent documentary on former World Chess Champion, Bobby Fischer. It was interesting and unsettling. Directed by Liz Garbus, the film followed his upbringing, his dedication to the game of chess from the age of six, and his personal psychological decline, leading to his [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/fischer Aufheben | Mixed media on paper, 8.5″ x 11″ | Starla Bontecou | 2011]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/aufheben I’m currently reading Jennifer DeVere Brody’s Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play for my thesis, and mulling over the dash’s bizarre ability to separate, connect, and propel. The Baroness’ writing is dominated by the dash, as she weaves through her narratives of insanity and woe in an erratic stream of consciousness that branches off in the most bizarre directions. Maybe I’m [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/some-things-last-a-long-time http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/blonk I’m currently reading about counterdiscourse and the abject address in Dina Al-Kassim’s On Pain of Speech for my thesis, and thumbing through pages and pages of the Baroness’ handwritten rants from her time in Eberswalde asylum just outside of Berlin. Is it odd that I don’t think she reads mad? Here’s another track from my research playlist:]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/abject-address http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/eye-contact one-mood joy-love | Starla Bontecou | Mixed media | 2011]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/one-mood-joy-love Subterranean | Starla Bontecou | Mixed media on paper | 2011]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/subterranean http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/toronto-new-school-of-writing-presents-an-evening-with-jaap-blonk As I shuttle back and forth between Vancouver and Toronto this summer, I’m also continuing my work with the unpublished correspondence of DADA artist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven at the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, including letters to Djuna Barnes, Peggy Guggenheim, William Carlos Williams, and more. After a few months of working with the Baroness’ nearly one-hundred year-old [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/elsa-von-freytag-loringhoven http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/grown-ocean Un coup de foudre! (UBC’s Point Grey campus in the foreground, located at the tip of the Burrard peninsula, or Lower Mainland, with downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park stretching out in the distance.) My last major trip (other than shuttling back and forth between NYC and Toronto) was to South America, specifically interior Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. I remember the [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/view-from-the-air I officially quit smoking and started long-distance running again. I ran through the Don River wetlands, and south to the lake. It’s a beautiful day to be by the water. I sat there for a while thinking how much I love these sad, polluted beaches. It’s sometimes hard to believe that miles of toxic sludge stretch across the basin, just [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/the-lake The Hot Docs Film Festival is upon us, and our correspondent C.S. Folkers is devouring films at an unprecedented rate. Along with the article “Two Approaches to Black History at the Hot Docs Film Festival” included in SB27, wherein C.S. Folkers reviews Göran Hugo Olsson’s Black power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sweden, 2011) and Charles Officer’s Mighty Jerome (Canada, 2011), we’re posting [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/hot-docs-film-festival I tried my best to keep my rantings and ravings about Canada’s recent federal election off of my blog, and safely on my twitter and facebook feeds, where my anger and indignation wouldn’t stand out so starkly and sorely among all of my project updates, art, and general happiness. Of course, the election of a Conservative majority government was a [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/the-election The latest issue of Steel Bananas is now available for download!]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sb27 In celebration of the multitude of recent awesomeness in my life, and as a last hurrah with my brother Jeff before he moves to Boston, one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Riaz, bought me a ticket to see tUnE yArDs at the Horseshoe. He’s the best, and I’m stoked!]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/tune-yards Ahh! After an application process just as long as my PhD application, wherein I had to send in my CV, three letters of reference, a statement of interest and involvement, and my academic transcripts, I got in to Green College! Don’t know what that is? Well, from their website: Green College is a graduate residential college at the University of [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/green-college With three months left in Toronto before I move West to start my PhD, I’ve been spending a lot of my time with my family. Each of my siblings will be in a different city this Fall, with my sister Patricia enjoying her recently bought first home in Mississauga, my brother Jeff departing to Boston to work as a Creative [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/family After a March Around the World, the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) is Bringing It All Back Home to Toronto, where people from all the cities in the world converge in Aesthetics of Collaboration—a retrospective of a decade of performance work by Panamanian-born, British-based artist Humberto Vélez. Aesthetics of Collaboration Humberto Vélez 13 April – 26 June 2011 Opening [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/aesthetics-of-collaboration-humberto-velez The symposium was fantastic. Heaslip House was packed, and my fellow panelists spurred a great Q&A session, making my first conference presentation one to remember. I’m hitting the end of my second term, with only four months left before I move to Vancouver! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I’m currently jumping around with the love of my life to this Mclusky [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/my-love-is-bigger-than-your-love http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/futurist-airplanes-nyc-art-music-indigenous-film-and-telematic-performance-art This upcoming Monday, March 28th, I will be presenting my paper, “Telepresence, Phenomenology, and Performance: Paul Sermon’s Telematic Dreaming“ on the Modernity and Technology Panel at the Experience the Modern Symposium & Exhibition. Joining me on this panel will be Dr Robert Hemmings, Assistant Professor in Culture and the Arts and English Studies at Nipissing University; Patrick Nickleson, a Masters student in Musicology at [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/experience-the-modern-symposium After weighing my PhD fellowship offers from the University of Alberta, New York University, and the University of British Columbia, I finally settled on UBC, not only for the superior funding, but for the vibrant writers’ communities in Vancouver, and of course, the picturesque setting sandwiched between the Rockies and the Pacific. I’ll begin my doctorate this Fall in their [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/moving-to-vancouver Rustling through photographs, still so many rolls waiting to be developed. A few reflections and multiple exposures from riding the MTA in NYC with Curran: Subjoyride by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven – Ready-to-wear American Soul Poetry ‹The right kind› Lux Kamel hands off the Better Bologna’s Beauty – Get this straight—Wrigley’s Pinaud’s Heels for the wise – Nothing so Pepsodent – [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/subjoyride Uuuhuhuhu Yeah, yeah, yeah . . .]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/all-you-need-is-a-dream-and-a-lover UBC just put their bid in for my future. NYU and UofA are shocked. Or maybe I’m just shocked. Three great opportunities and none of the clarity I thought I’d have in this position. I can’t believe I got in to all of my prospective PhD programs. Suffering the anxiety and indecision is tolerable if it means I might choose [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/ubc-nyu-uofa http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/ive-seen-and-done-things-i-want-to-forget KIN | Starla Bontecou | 2011]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/kin New zine in production, volume two of Cirque Existentielle:]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/cirque-existentielle-vol2 http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/lovely Nine months ago, I published a brief introduction to this work in Steel Bananas. This is the final manifesto, albeit part of a larger work. Manifesto for Neo-Harmonic Performance Part One of the Manifesto on Post-Millennium Humanism ISBN: 978-0-9867777-4-5 Release date: July/August 2011]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/manifesto-for-neo-harmonic-performance Last Wednesday — coincidentally right after my encounter with the semiotext(e) edition of the French anti-globalization group The Invisible Committee’s The Coming Insurrection — Curran invited me to the opening of Revolutionary Sundays / The Centre for Incidental Activisms (CIA) at the Art Gallery of York University. It was appropriate, and incredible. Revolutionary Sundays is an exhibition of Gilberto Ante’s [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/agyu-flux-revolution http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/against-bill-c-49 “I don’t mess around with my subconscious.” — Robert Rauschenberg]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/rhys “An image is a stop the mind makes between uncertainties.” — Djuna Barnes]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/impression http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/death-to-everyone http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/wax-lyrical I just finished reading this fantastic collection of essays, Technologies of Intuition, which sparked a new line of research for my MA thesis on the Baroness and performance theory. It also contains many works which jive with my performance methodologies, which made it an emotional and introspective read. I’m in love. — “Our rational Cartesian culture despises the uncontrollable unconscious; [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/technologies-of-intuition I love Gertrude Stein. After being introduced to Tender Buttons in the second year of my undergrad by Dr. Stephen Cain (to whom I owe my Steinian consciousness), my interest has been insatiable. While in New York City last October, I picked up a 1952 hardcover collection of her novelettes, Mrs. Reynolds & Five Earlier Novelettes with a Foreword by Lloyd [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/a-rare-stein-is-a-rare-stein-is-a-rare-stein Yep. Pretty much exactly like this.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/january-8th I found this text on the second floor of the MLCRC while waiting for the photocopier to warm up. In a large room with empty cubicles and forgotten furniture, there was an odd assortment of papers, abandoned awards, obsolete computers, and maps. I found this English/Russian text on the floor of an empty cubicle, stapled together and covered in dust. [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/prima-facie We just launched the website for SB’s new chapbook press, Steel Bananas Publications. Check it out!]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sb-publications ‘PATADATA by Starla Bontecou A book of ‘pataphysical schemata mapping human interaction in the new millennium. SB Publications Release date: February 1st, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-9867777-2-1]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/patadata Sarah Clement is SB’s December 2010 Artist Spotlight. She is described as balancing “a delicate sensibility with something more bold and iconic.” I agree.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/from-sb-sarah-clement SB 26 is alive! This is our last monthly issue before going quarterly in 2011, including a review of Jerry Granelli’s solo percussion free jazz album 1313, essays on the Resolution Ego and Phenomenological fragmentation in telematic performance art, as well as a Killin Food exploration of the traditional Chinese dumpling and an account of King Frankenstein’s orchestral encounter with Familiar [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sb-2 From R. Murray Schafer’s The Composer in the Classroom. My obsession with R. Murray Schafer recently reemerged. I attended his latest opera The Children’s Crusade in 2009 – an unforgettable performance with nearly one hundred performers, The Canadian Children’s Opera Company, and the Toronto Consort – and haven’t been able to shake the inspiration since. Lately, I have been devouring Schafer’s [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/schafer http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/is-yourself ]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/alice The latest issue of The Incongruous Quarterly is alive! I had the great pleasure of working as Guest Poetry Editor and designer for this one, so check it out! There’s a new music section in this issue, with unpublishable tracks from Holy Fuck, RatTail’s Jasmyn Burke and others curated by Dan Beirne, and Journey Prize winning prose writer Saleema Nawaz [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/iq2 http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/gratitude Winter again. Lamenting the mounds of halite seeping into the lake, negatively affecting ecosystems, pollution on top of pollution. The storm sewers feed directly into the lake. Toronto’s children will age beside a quickly congealing puddle of toxic sludge. Politicians build mock-lakes in their continuing attempts to rob nature of its dignity. Vive le progrès! The ducks are being replaced with [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/modern-ruin I’m so excited! After my interview with Dr. Irene Gammel, the Research Chair and Director of The Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, I was waiting with bated breath to hear back about whether or not they could use me at the MLCRC. Today, I was hired as a Graduate Research Assistant! I’ll be working with personal letters by DADA [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/hired-at-the-modern-literature-and-culture-research-centre   Started earlier this year with the Police State performance art piece at Dundas Square – in response to what they witnessed during their participation in the G20 protests and rallies – the Change Toronto Performance Series by Starla Bontecou and The Gentleman presents two new happenings.   M O D E R N  R U I N December 13th at Toronto’s [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/change-toronto-two-new-performances Clara | Starla Bontecou | 2010 Though this past weekend I visited my sister’s new place, had coffee with old friends, and hung out with my brother, it seems as though all I do is work these days. I finished two PhD applications and both of my term papers this week, and I’m still working on a final foundations assignment [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/productivity-and-clara Tonight, my MA program is hosting a special reading with Caribbean poet, playwright, visual artist and Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. The event starts at seven, and is open to the public. Check out the specs below, as well as a video of Derek Walcott reading at The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/special-reading-by-nobel-laureate-derek-walcott http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sometimes-i-cant-believe-it-im-moving-past-the-feeling-again SB 25 is here. From a low-key high-brow performance art festival on last month’s cover to. . . Jersey Shore? I don’t think I anticipated such a thematic chasm between the latest issues. I also didn’t expect to receive a submission from Toronto’s favourite pop culture peeper (I mean, critic) Hal Niedzviecki. This month’s issue boasts an imaginative run in [...]]]> http://fruitlet.steelbananas.com/sb-25