A Systematic Reading of Some Poems
by Bertolt Brecht
1998
Audio tape or CD, text, audio-player,
and headphones
Alternate installation: Poems in their new
form appear in large vynil or printed
letters on the wall
Installation at Houghton Gallery, New York,
1999
PL CAT#: 98.xx.427.0001.26.325
System # 10
Theta Ilor Oful M
(selection)
...Bro kenwinged hecra shed
and nowli essma shed
onthe hardha rdcity square.
System # 9
O Nv Iole Nc E
(selection)
Thefrui
ttreet
hatb
ear
sno
fru
itis
called
sterile...
This sound recording presents a selection of twelve
poems by Bertolt Brecht. Each poem is given a new
form in that the silences between its words are
rearranged according to specific patterns, resulting
in a range of readings that highlight and release the
tension between the natural, and the foreign, the
phonetic, and the semantic.
The alternate wall text installation skips the phonetic
stage and allows the viewers to attempt their own
reading, be it by attempting to read the words out loud,
or by imagining their sound and meaning.