pommes 2012

Video-instal­la­tion and some printed concrete poetry 

“Pomes Penyeach” was the title of James Joyce’s thir­teen-poem collec­tion, written over a twenty-year period (1904−24).

The title is a play on ​“poems” and ​“pommes” (the French word for apples) which are here offered at ​“a penny each” in either currency. It was the custom for Irish trades­people of the time to offer their customers a ​“tilly” (in Irish, tuil­leadh (= more)) or extra serving – just as English bakers had devel­oped the tradi­tion of the ​“Baker’s dozen”, offering thir­teen loaves instead of twelve. en​.wikipedia​.org/​wiki/…

pommes, the title for my series of poems, which is mostly written in English with parts also in German, is a further play on words — it means chips in German; the expres­sion, a short­ened version of pomme de terre, earth apples was absorbed into the German language from Belgian — the so-called ​“French fries” actu­ally orig­i­nated from Belgium. 

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Like half dimen­sional poems 2009 – 2011, cement 2011 and weißer neger (white nigger) 2011, pommes is prose poetry, written in English and German. In style and sense these are concrete poems, a collec­tion of jumbled abstract thoughts, misun­der­stood conver­sa­tion and misread text, which, reflect the daily life and tempera­ment of the Jewish artist. This piece, unlike Tanya Ury’s other concrete poetry will however be presented with several actors and thema­tises Jewish iden­tity and life in Germany today.

Tanya Ury

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Tanya Ury’s written poetry may be regarded as ​“concrete” because of its visual design, and uncon­ven­tional aural effect when spoken — the texts thereby gain in dimen­sion beyond accepted meaning.

2011, Ury created visual images of 17 concrete poems, to be presented online and as print versions (23.5 x 32.45 cm), digital image processing Mirco Sanftleben, two of these poems being femi­ninity and femi­nini­a­tion, the rest being part of the series cement, weißer neger (white nigger), concrete party & oral call, cross word, toned poems, two toned, pommes, taste of space, leeres archiv and since 2011 Tanya Ury recorded 6 of the more tradi­tional poems (toned poems: 5.54 minutes) to be found in the poetry series, together with Kasander Nilist (double bass, sound and mix), also for the June edition online of Imag­i­na­tions – Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Univer­sity of Alberta (CA) with Ury as featured artist.
www​.csj​.ualberta​.ca/im…

Ury has also created other artworks that might be consid­ered visual poetry. Moving Message 1992, incor­po­rates an LED sign displaying the words: you are why; Sonata in Sea 1999 – 2000 is a photo series combined with poetry and wrestle­with­y­ourangel 2001, is a neon sign produced together with the neon sign neonazi 2001; the title of a double photo portrait lesser is me more or less 2003 plays on the name of the German Post-Impres­sionist Lesser Ury, as does the title of a further double portrait or else 2007, which refers to the German writer Else Ury. The title of a third photo-portrait Beelze­bu­larin 2005 (in the Promised Land series) reveals itself to be an anagram of the biblical Bezalel Ben Uri. half dimen­sional — semi detached 2010, combines the first of the half dimen­sional poems with the photo­graph semi detached.

concrete – a collec­tion of works (including poetry series)


Presen­ta­tion

2013 (11.7. – 7.9) ​“Righting the Image” — The Liter­a­ture Collec­tion in Cologne (LiK) and the Cologne City Library, present an exhi­bi­tion of Tanya Ury’s work. Opening event — Thursday, 11.7.2013, 8 pm. Intro­duc­tion: Dr. Gabriele Ewenz, Director of the LiK-Archive, with Suspended Beliefs — impro­vised poetry with impro­vised music: Tanya Ury (voice), Gernot Bogumil (trumpet), Kasander Nilist (double bass), Hans Salz (percus­sion), Peter Worringer (e‑guitar) 

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