BLACKBURN 20|20
hc(X)change: 10 years of creating community with harlequin creature
April 12 - May 8, 2022
harlequin creature was been operating as a micro-press since 2011. over the past ten years, it has put out hand-made periodical publications, chapbooks, broadsides, and mail art, and hosted an online translation platform. the current exhibition in the Blackburn 20|20 gallery puts on display a decade of collective work. hc editors have experimented with different printing and binding techniques over the years, working in close collaboration with contributing authors, artists, and musicians to create editions that showcase with care and individual consideration the text, image, and sound published in each volume.
hc(X)change is on one hand a retrospective of a press that has ceased operations, but on the other, it marks the official launch of the most current publication. hcx is the tenth and final issue of the arts and literary journal with which harlequin creature began, and includes eight unique print projects that come together in an individually hand-painted box. related programming offered by several contributors to hcx is an integral component of the current exhibition.
for more information on past publications, editors, and contributors, visit harlequincreature.org
hc(X)change was conceived and curated by Essye Klempner & meghan forbeswith essential installation assistance from Joana O’Learyand the help of Chloe diBlassio special thanks to Sherese Francis for the exhibition title
launch/exhibition opening
Friday, April 15 - doors open 6pm / readings 7.30pm / music 9pm
readings - allia abdullah matta, Sherese Francis, Hiromi Kiba
music - Ian McLellan Davis (guitar), Prajna Desai (voice/video), Carmen Rothwell (bass), Lucia Stavros (harp
The final publication of harlequin creature, hcx, features 8 unique print projects, assembled together in a hand-painted carton box. All the pieces were either printed letterpress by Vlad Beronja and meghan forbes at the Austin Book Arts Center in TX &/or risograph by Essye Klempner at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and meghan forbes at the SVA RisoLAB in NYC.
The full list of authors and titles included in hcx:
allia abdullah-matta, washed clean & blues-politico
Dubravka Ugrešić, The Red School, translated by Vlad Beronja
Hiromi Kiba, Dance Floor Realization
JP Howard, Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems
Kelani Abass, Stamping History (Iranti 3)
laura cetilia, melody + prose score
prajna desai, pneumatique, with musical realization in collaboration with Ian McLellan Davis
Sherese Francis, Binding a Divine Multiplicity Into One
Painted boxes by Joana O'leary
Editorial is meghan forbes, Sherese Francis, Ian McLellan Davis & Hannah Pröbsting
Magic Zigns and Vision Binders: Oracle Poetry workshop with Sherese Francis
Wednesday, April 20 - 7-8.30PM EST
In this workshop, participants will learn about tarot basics, and discuss card reading as a meditative practice, including its relation to ekphrasis and concrete poetry. Prompts will give participants a chance to practice intuitive reading and intuitive spread-making.
ONLINE | Image in Translation: A conversation between Dubravka Ugresic, Petar Milat, and Vlad Beronja
Friday, April 22 - 12PM EST
Please join us for a conversation with Dubravka Ugrešić about her visual art practice and The Red School, her letterpressed chapbook included in the harlequin creature's last issue.
This program will be conducted via Zoom.
Mirror Ball, Hiromi Kiba
Tuesday, April 26 - 7PM EST
Photo: Guarionex Rodriguez, Jr.
It is my privilege to share my poetry performance, ‘Mirror Ball (Hanging in front of you?)’ with the community of EFA/Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Music has had an impact on my spiritual and mental health on the deepest levels. I rediscovered the dance floor as a sanctuary in 2014, which inspired me to write a poem in 2019. My poetic interpretation of social stigma was challenged by my own inhibition. For the tenth issue of harlequin creature, I wrote a series of ‘Light Reflex’ poems in collaboration with an image of the golden mirror ball, painted by August Goulet in 2021. This hand-made chapbook project — which I worked on with editors Meghan Forbes and Sherese Francis — gave me an opportunity to look back on my artistic development. As a backstory to my chapbook, ‘Dance Floor Realization’, I incorporated text, 35mm slide images of my previous work and Daily Session’s downtempo track in video. The video making helped me to articulate my train of thoughts related to the disco ball, which has been recurrent in my work since 1995. On the anniversary of my father's death, I wish to celebrate not only his life, but also the life of Bob Blackburn who taught my husband, Steven. Bob even took the time to join a dinner party we hosted in Harlem in 2002. I have come full circle with the light reflecting object and feel so honored to have had Essye Klempner print the cover of my circular chapbook at Bob's print shop 20 years later.
Additional thanks to Meghan Forbes and Sherese Francis, for working with me on this chapbook.
Dia Community Free Day at Dia-Beacon, July 12, 2014. Photo (c) Nicki Sebastian