Lars von Trier, Sophie Calle, Jean Genet--References in Cynthia Cruz's How the End Begins

For their series "Typography of," Blunderbuss Magazine has Cynthia Cruz considering Lars von Trier's Melancholia, how it inspired and shaped her fourth book of poetry, How the End Begins (Four Way Books). Cruz also discusses Jean Genet, Sophie Calle, Venice, and more. An excerpt:

Several of the poems in the collection reference the work of visual artists. “The Birthday Ceremony” refers to Sophie Calle’s series of the same title about which Calle stated:

“On my birthday I always worried that people will forget me. In 1980, to relieve myself of this anxiety, I decided that every year, if possible on October 9, I would invite to dinner the exact number of people corresponding to my age, including a stranger chosen by one of my guests.”

What most interests me about Calle’s project is the use of the vitrine, the colleting of items to ward off aging, and the grief when nearing the time of one’s death. And so, though my series does not correspond directly with Calle’s project, it connects through the idea of collecting items or words inside a glass vitrine as a means to ward of death, grief, and trauma. The poems, then, become a kind of talisman or a collection of talismans. Here is an excerpt from the series.

The Birthday Ceremony

And I thought I heard America
Coming in like a dream on the short-wave.

The uncanny always comes back—

Non-stop theater of compulsive
Repetition,

Mother, I’ve another
Drink in my hand,

Failing, again, at controlling
The clutter and chaos.

America, fading out, a flicker at first
Then lost, in my blind spot.

The Birthday Ceremony

Scrapbook from five to eleven a.m.

Throw the I-Ching, reconfigure the mess
Of last night’s sordid tarot.

Wine glass rings on the jackets of all my favorite books.

Drink organic tincture of leaves and anise seed stars.
Coat the face in clear cold jelly
From the cheese box in the fridge.

I will drive it out of me, my mind.

Another series in the book, “The Fatigue Empire,” refers to the title of German artist Cosima von Bonin’s exhibition of the same name in 2010 at the Kunsthaus Bregenz.

In 2012, von Bonin, scheduled to give a public lecture with the musician Moritz von Oswald, cancelled. In lieu of their talk, the two artists issued a statement. Here is the announcement in its entirety. The cancellation, one can imagine, as part of the artist’s performance, her enactment of Empire Fatigue. From the announcement, what I found of most interest were the following words: “I feel exhausted” and:

“To function constantly these days is seen as extremely virtuous. For many the worst thing would be to acknowledge that they are exhausted. Contemporary capitalism demands constant creativity, and that one deal with it, profitably. Not even losers are left in peace—they too should work on themselves continuously, and get involved permanently. The Fatigue Empire represents an opposing model that celebrates exhaustion very open-mindedly, as everybody knows of course.”