This self portrait was printed in an international art magazine.
Entitled "Self portrait with head in flames," it blends original photographic images with digital art work.
I hope you do not find this presentation too hot-headed.
If I have any authority in talking to you about the visionary poetry and pictures of William Blake it is based on my previous incarnation as a director of the Oxford School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, based here in the city.
Though at one point I have been guest of honour at the British psychological Society
today I am here primarily as a poet. On occasion I have put together my psychological insights with explorations of famous poets such as Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
I was asked to speak at the Plath 75 here in Oxford.My paper can be found on line in volume 7 of Plath profiles, an on-lie journal about Plath's life and work.
Xu Bing was not a great success in Oxford. I think he would have been, however, had there been works like this one from another of his exhibitions here. A lake of words pouring down a plug hole to the floor of a gallery would surely have brought in the crowds.
You can also take an image and blend it with your own ideas, expressed through poetry.
Sacrilege to some, creativity to others.
You can even take an image from a gallery and turn it into a whole book of poetry for performance as my colleague Diana Moore has done with the famous "Visitor to the forest".
See:
http://www.diana-moore.com/
So at last we come to William Blake
Blake had to teach himself to write backwards in order for his works to print the right way round. But here we see the letters transcend their fontine nature and blend into the image world.
It is claimed by some that Blake wrote the words first and then fitted the images around them. I am sure that this is true at times. However, Blake is full of ideas and ways of working. He does not stay with any single modus operandi.
What is so wonderful to see in Blake is the way the word and image flow together into something that is a work of art in itself.
This is why it has been so appropriate to begin my work at the museum with Lear and end it with the mastery of William Blake.
How sad it is that he could only afford very small copper plates to etch his work on.
How sad that he could only make such a small number of images at a time.
I looked forward to the Blake exhibition for three whole years. But when it was finally unveiled to the world it was:
A real curate’s egg
It's a fascinating but erratic and frustrating show,
on the one hand "a fanatical survey of Blake's graphic techniques",
“On the other hand, a second narrative wants to find the Blake we know and love among all the documents and data – Blake the left-field genius, the religious and political revolutionary, the radical visionary and poet whose aphorisms are emblazoned on the walls.
It might seem that these ideals don’t have to be incompatible, and there are moments when they come together at the Ashmolean, at least in the form of wall texts. But in general this is a mismatch of what seem to be two disparate shows.” says Laura Cumming in The Observer.
Blake's extraordinary visions should be free to fly, but here, alas, didacticism draws them closer to earth."
Colin Harrison was excited about recreating Blake’s prints, about all the techniques Blake used and discovered.
That is fine if you are an academic or a print maker, perhaps even a historian.
But it is the easy option. It just does not go to the heart of the matter.
Blake is not a revolutionary genius because he invented printing techniques.
He is a unique English genius for connecting thought, feeling and philosophy in poetry and pictures.
It is the placing of poetry and pictures together that makes Blake unique and special.
The exhibition taught us how Blake developed from an autodidact playing in the streets of London to a master engraver and print maker. There are lots of stunning works to enjoy.
But It focuses on things that made Blake a print maker, not an artistic genius.
If I was making a Blake exhibition I would have built it around this quotation from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
"But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged;
this I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite
which was hid."
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
It was actually there on the wall of the exhibition, but tucked away in a corner and so badly lit that it was not possible to read it all standing in one position.
The Inspired by Blake festival, which was tacked on to the side of the exhibition, helped to redress the balance a little. Blake as poet and visonary creative genius was celebrated much more fully in this shorter period.
There was also an opportunity for our modern poets to add something to the mix through our two poetry readings in the exhibition.
I made this for a poster to advertise the first gallery readings in January 2014
It blends an altered image of Blake himself with my own art work.
There is a fragment of my first Blake poem overlayed on the poster.
Both the nudes and the poetry are in a Blakean style.
All this is so easy to achieve in photoshop.
It is so easy to reproduce and share with the world.
Poems for the Blake Exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum
January 24th 2015 12.30 and 14.30 p.m.
Poet Poem Object/s
Julie Forth Master and Apprentice The monotypes
Printmaking Studio Studio
Nick Owen Inspired by Blake Ezekiel
Jalina Mhyana "Canto V, La Commedia" The Lovers’ Whirlwind
Mary Stableford ‘Blake thou shouldst be living at this hour…’ by the print room
Merryn Williams Rainy Thursday Outside
the exhibition
Derek Summers Blake and the Volcano God Los
I share Mary Stableford's poem from the set here, partly because it set me thinking about what to write myself, and partly because it is too much "In the footsteps" of the master.
Today, we need photoshop and the internet not a copper plate to get our message out to the world about the dreadful things that are happening today which require poets and artists to speak out.
‘Blake thou shouldst be living at this hour…’
Little lad who maimed thee?
who on earth would hurt thee?
A stealthy drone has struck you down
paralysed, naked, to the ground.
Now held firmly: silent, damaged
a dirty turban is your bandage.
Child victim you will be displayed
a large photo. on the centre page,
showing just how much we care.
But we, of course, live nowhere near.
Little lad who maimed thee?
Blake would know who maimed thee.
He’d cut his rage into the copper plate,
reveal the cruel obscenity of your fate.
Mary Stableford
January 2015
I focused my own thoughts on this Ezekiel image.
At this point I realized that even if we are walking in Blake's footprints we should maybe not do it so literally. Merryn Williams offered us something that was essentially a parody. I decided to write something more
in the spirit of Blake.
In the spirit of Blake
“Ezekiel, tell me why you may not grieve?”
“When it is time to go we simply leave
Our loved ones pass into a nearby room
My grief would hold me on this earthly plain
My meditation would not be the same.
I have to speak of things
And prophecy.
That’s why.”
“Now Blake, you had a brother.
Tell me why
You did not grieve for him
Although he died
So very young.”
“My brother sits with me
And holds my hand
He tells me of a greater consciousness
And visions that expand
Beyond the worlds
Of single visioned folk.
I do not joke.”
“Last night I slept with loves long dead
I spoke with them
Sweet things they said
About the star you find within your heart
And how great loves
Emerge through art
And now the words begin to flow
I prophecy
and speak of things that you should know
A single vision will not do
So many modern poets
That is you
Shallow pedants tell you what to think
You follow in their footsteps
Writing like they do
When you should find a demon
Or a God or two
Within your very being
Deep within your heart
That’s where to start
If you should need a teacher
Ask your death
His secrets
Listen to your breath.
A second vision you will find
Behind your very ordinary mind
Then if you dare
Dig down into a third
Poetic genius is there
It’s infinite
And not absurd.
Blake can take you where you need to go.
His simple words and visions show
A world of beauty, life and light and joy,
A place where every little girl and boy
Can thrive,
Till they are educated
To a single visioned life
Full of wars
And full of strife,
Where Gods keep fighting
Over who is best.
I’m singularly unimpressed
By all who rule and murder
In some mighty name,
Which should control us all,
Or so they claim.
There is an esoteric truth
Behind each exoteric God.
All Gods dissolve
When humans
On the fourfold path
Have trod.
Existence, consciousness and bliss
That’s what there is.
One other thing I hold as true.
If there are Gods
They dwell within
As you
And you
And you.
We had a second set of readings in February
A double sided poster with poetry and pictures
Gallery Readings for February
Poet Poem Object/position
Jennifer McGowan £52.10.0 The apprentice agreement
Tony Isaacs Anthem Jerusalem
Louise Larchbourne Metamorphic The approach of doom; Robert Blake
Diana Moore The ghost of a flea
Debbie Moogan. Behold Newton. The Newton image
Julie Forth Imagination Divine By the printing press
Acrostic
I turn my back to the east
Sarianne Durie Samuel Palmer Palmer: Late twilight
Nick Owen Lovers redeemed Illustration for Dante's Inferno
I chose Blake's illustration for Canto 5 of Dante's inferno, where Virgil speaks with Francesca Da Rimini, who is among those sinners who have had illicit sexual liaisons. Blake rescues her from the whirlwind fate and sets her and her lover in a sun-like sphere up on the top right of his image.
Curiously, Jalina Mhyana had also chosen this work for her poem in the January set.
Lovers Redeemed
Love is a heaven
And love is a hell
Love is a mistress who likes to compel
She tosses you up
When you’re standing your ground
She smashes you down then
And spins you around
You’re down on your knees
Then you’re up in the sky
You can’t even crawl
Then you find you can fly
When love is just courtly
It isn’t enough
When you’re under her spell
You want more of that stuff
When your heart’s burning up
With forbidden desire
There’s no holy water can put out the fire
You only hear sirens
Not heavenly choir
Yet love is a power that’s stronger than fear
Your vision is certain
Your vision is clear
You will give up your life
If it brings your love near
You really don’t care if the price
The price
The price
Is impossibly dear
Repent, regret, remorse
Those voices never go away
And yet
And yet
And yet
There is no way
No way to ever make things right
That is forbidden lovers plight
It’s true I did not win the grail
But even Lancelot has failed
And when I die
I know that I
Will fly forever on the wind
And whirl forever through the sky
But I shall reach my lover’s hands
And as the spiral twists, extends
We’ll dance together through the wind
A not unpleasant punishment
For those who’ve sinned
At last, dear Blake
Our hands you’ll take
And pull us from the gale
You’ll rest us in eternity
And finish our travail
Flesh and blood shall fade away
Dissolved within the sun
But we shall find redemption in
The place from whence we come
© Nick Owen February 2015
I am not sure how well we have done in creating poems good enough for Blake's images. Perhaps people will be willing to comment here on the blog.
There was certainly a burst of creativity back in the 1960's that was very much inspired by Blake.
I note some examples of it.
Timothy Leary and the 1960’s psychedelic revolution
The doors of perception
The mescalin and LSD experience
Leonard Cohen
The story of Isaac
Patti Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSLjYScyaBo
The Rolling Stones
Satanic Majesties Requests
The Beatles
Sgt Pepper
Stan Grof The discover of LSD and LSD therapy
C G Jung
If you read Jung, Blake is much easier to understand
, I believe, though I know many find Jung hard to understand as well.
In the sixties OZ and IT used simple printing techniques to get out their revolutionary underground newspaper messages
They had to avoid censorship just as Blake had to do in his revolutionary era.
They were part of a sexual revolution in human relationships which Blake would have whole-heartedly supported.
Music was a huge part of that movement. One of the readings in our second set was actually sung in the exhibition space.
The pop group, The Doors took their name from Blake's words. In Jim Morrison, their lead singer, they had a poet worth celebrating.
I quote:
“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role.
You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.
There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level.
“What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn”
Troubled times return
The Guardian Newspaper has picked up on the need for a new visionary spirit for politics
Another time of revolution and war
Art's task is to save the soul of mankind
William Blake
http://www.stillnessspeaks.com/ssblog/william-blake-the-greatest-visionary-artist-of-all/
Steve Bell produces a parody of Blake to describe the current threat to our free national Health Service. Over the last thirty years the gap between rich and poor has got ever wider leading to a likely break down of society not unlike the revolutions of Blake's day in France and America.
Perhaps the vehicle for such modern audio-visual poetry might best suit video-poetry
Video Poetry
Owen Sheers has certainly come up with stunning landscape video to enhance the poetry of a number of recent poets. Sadly I have not been able to find them on youtube. They were screened on TV but do not seem to be available on i-player.
I have run out of time. I will leave you with the words of TS Elliot and the imagery of William Blake
In my end is my beginning.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
From the four quartets by T. S. Elliot
I began with Lear's Jerusalem so it is fitting that I end with Blake's amazing image for his own work, Jerusalem. I hope that when I depart it will be like slipping into another though more wonderful room.