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Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer,
sound poet
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literacy and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntax, syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sou ...
, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices.
He is best known for his use of the
cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the novelist
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
. With the engineer
Ian Sommerville he also invented the
Dreamachine
The Dreamachine (a contraction of Dream Machine) is a stroboscopic flickering light art device that produces eidetic visual stimuli. Artist Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs' "systems adviser" Ian Sommerville created the Dreamachine after r ...
, a flicker device designed as an art object to be viewed with the eyes closed. It was in painting and drawing, however, that Gysin devoted his greatest efforts, creating
calligraphic
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as ...
works inspired by cursive
Japanese "grass" script and
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
. Burroughs later stated that "Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected."
Biography
Early years
John Clifford Brian Gysin was born at the Canadian military hospital in
Taplow
Taplow is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the left bank of the River Thames, facing Maidenhead in the neighbouring county of Berkshire, with Cippenham and Burnham to the east. It is th ...
,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, England.
His mother, Stella Margaret Martin, was a Canadian from
Deseronto, Ontario
Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located at the mouth of the Napanee River on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, on the northern side of Lake Ontario.
The town was named for Captain John Deseronto, a nativ ...
. His father, Leonard Gysin, a captain with the
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was the expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division ...
, was killed in action eight months after his son's birth. Stella returned to Canada and settled in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, Alberta where her son became "the only Catholic day-boy at an Anglican boarding school". Graduating at fifteen, Gysin was sent to
Downside School
Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey.
Originall ...
in
Stratton-on-the-Fosse
Stratton-on-the-Fosse is a village and civil parish located on the edge of the Mendip Hills, south-west of Westfield, north-east of Shepton Mallet, and from Frome, in Somerset, England. It has a population of 1,108, and has a rural agricultu ...
, near
Bath, Somerset in England, a prestigious college run by the Benedictines and known as "the Eton of Catholic public schools". Despite, or because of, attending a Catholic school, Gysin became an atheist.
Surrealism
In 1934, he moved to Paris to study ''La Civilisation Française'', an open course given at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
where he made literary and artistic contacts through Marie Berthe Aurenche,
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...
's second wife.
[Cf. John Geiger, 'Brion Gysin: His Life and Times' in ''Brion Gysin: Tuning into the Multimedia Age'', p. 204.] He joined the Surrealist Group and began associating with
Valentine Hugo
Valentine Hugo (1887–1968) was a French artist and writer. She was born Valentine Marie Augustine Gross, only daughter to Auguste Gross and Zélie Démelin, in Boulogne-sur-Mer. She is best known for her work with the Russian ballet and with th ...
,
Leonor Fini,
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
,
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and
Dora Maar
Henriette Theodora Markovitch (22 November 1907 – 16 July 1997), known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A romantic partner of Pablo Picasso, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his ''Portr ...
. A year later, he had his first exhibition at the ''Galérie Quatre Chemins'' in Paris with Ernst, Picasso,
Hans Arp
Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist.
Early life
Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...
,
Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 24 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer.
Biography
B ...
,
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealist movement.
Early life
He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufacturer who subseque ...
,
Giorgio de Chirico
Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian
artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...
, Dalí,
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
,
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...
,
Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...
and
Yves Tanguy
Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (, ), was a French surrealist painter.
Biography
Tanguy, the son of a retired navy captain, was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Affa ...
. On the day of the preview, however, he was expelled from the Surrealist Group by
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
, who ordered the poet
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.
In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
to take down his pictures. Gysin was 19 years old. His biographer, John Geiger, suggests the arbitrary expulsion "had the effect of a curse. Years later, he blamed other failures on the Breton incident. It gave rise to conspiracy theories about the powerful interests who seek control of the art world. He gave various explanations for the expulsion, the more elaborate involving 'insubordination' or ''lèse majesté'' towards Breton".
After World War II
After serving in the U.S. army during World War II, Gysin published a biography of
Josiah "Uncle Tom" Henson titled, ''To Master, a Long Goodnight: The History of Slavery in Canada'' (1946). A gifted draughtsman, he took an 18-month course learning the Japanese language (including calligraphy) that would greatly influence his artwork. In 1949, he was among the first
Fulbright Fellow
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
s. His goal was to research, at the University of Bordeaux and in the
Archivo de Indias in Seville, Spain, the history of slavery, a project that he later abandoned. He moved to
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
, Morocco, after visiting the city with novelist and composer
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
in 1950. In 1952/3 he met the travel writer and sexual adventurer
Anne Cumming
Anne Cumming (the pen name of Felicity Anne Cumming Mason, 14 December 1917 – 28 August 1993) was a British translator, public relations officer, polyamorist and writer.
Early life
Cumming was born in Walton-on-Thames in 1917, to parents Howa ...
and they remained friends until his death.
[Richard Davenport-Hines, 'Cumming, (Felicity) Anne (1917–1993)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200]
accessed 11 April 2017
/ref>
Morocco and the Beat Hotel
In 1954 in Tangier, Gysin opened a restaurant called The 1001 Nights, with his friend Mohamed Hamri
Mohamed Hamri (August 27, 1932 – August 29, 2000), commonly known as Hamri, was a Moroccan painter and author. Self-described as "The painter of Morocco," Hamri was one of the few Moroccans to participate in the Tangier Beat scene.
He was bo ...
, who was the cook. Gysin hired the Master Musicians of Jajouka
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar (sometimes written as ...featuring Bachir Attar) are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition. The collective includes ...
from the village of Jajouka to perform alongside entertainment that included acrobats, a dancing boy and fire eaters. The musicians performed there for an international clientele that included William S. Burroughs. Gysin lost the business in 1958, and the restaurant closed permanently. That same year, Gysin returned to Paris, taking lodgings in a flophouse located at 9 rue Gît-le-Cœur
Rue Gît-le-Cœur is a street in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France.
Name
In the 14th century the street was documented under the name ''Gilles-Queux'' or ''Gui-le-Queux'', presumably referring to a cook ( in Old French) named Giles. Late ...
that would become famous as the Beat Hotel
The Beat Hotel was a small, run-down hotel of 42 rooms at 9 Rue Gît-le-Cœur in the Latin Quarter of Paris, notable chiefly as a residence for members of the Beat poetry movement of the mid-20th century.
Overview
It was a "class 13" hotel, mean ...
. Working on a drawing, he discovered a Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
technique by accident:
William Burroughs and I first went into techniques of writing, together, back in room No. 15 of the Beat Hotel during the cold Paris spring of 1958... Burroughs was more intent on Scotch-taping his photos together into one great continuum on the wall, where scenes faded and slipped into one another, than occupied with editing the monster manuscript... ''Naked Lunch
''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the na ...
'' appeared and Burroughs disappeared. He kicked his habit with Apomorphine
Apomorphine, sold under the brand name Apokyn among others, is a type of aporphine having activity as a non- selective dopamine agonist which activates both D2-like and, to a much lesser extent, D1-like receptors. It also acts as an antag ...
and flew off to London to see Dr Dent, who had first turned him on to the cure. While cutting a mount for a drawing in room No. 15, I sliced through a pile of newspapers with my Stanley blade and thought of what I had said to Burroughs some six months earlier about the necessity for turning painters' techniques directly into writing. I picked up the raw words and began to piece together texts that later appeared as "First Cut-Ups" in ''Minutes to Go'' (Two Cities, Paris 1960).
When Burroughs returned from London in September 1959, Gysin not only shared his discovery with his friend but the new techniques he had developed for it. Burroughs then put the techniques to use while completing ''Naked Lunch
''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the na ...
'' and the experiment dramatically changed the landscape of American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
. Gysin helped Burroughs with the editing of several of his novels including '' Interzone'', and wrote a script for a film version of ''Naked Lunch'', which was never produced. The pair collaborated on a large manuscript for Grove Press
Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...
titled '' The Third Mind'' but it was determined that it would be impractical to publish it as originally envisioned. The book later published under that title incorporates little of this material. Interviewed for ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in 1997, Burroughs explained that Gysin was "the only man that I've ever respected in my life. I've admired people, I've liked them, but he's the only man I've ever respected." In 1969, Gysin completed his finest novel, '' The Process'', a work judged by critic Robert Palmer as "a classic of 20th century modernism".
A consummate innovator, Gysin altered the cut-up technique to produce what he called permutation poems in which a single phrase was repeated several times with the words rearranged in a different order with each reiteration. An example of this is "I don't dig work, man/Man, work I don't dig." Many of these permutations were derived using a random sequence generator in an early computer program written by Ian Sommerville. Commissioned by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 1960 to produce material for broadcast, Gysin's results included "Pistol Poem", which was created by recording a gun firing at different distances and then splicing the sounds. That year, the piece was subsequently used as a theme for the Paris performance of
Le Domaine Poetique, a showcase for experimental works by people like Gysin,
François Dufrêne
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, Kin ...
,
Bernard Heidsieck, and
Henri Chopin
Henri Chopin (18 June 1922 – 3 January 2008) was a French avant-garde poet and musician.
Life
Henri Chopin was born in Paris, 18 June 1922, one of three brothers, and the son of an accountant. Both his siblings died during the war. One was sh ...
.
With Sommerville, he built the Dreamachine in 1961. Described as "the first art object to be seen with the eyes closed", the flicker device uses
alpha waves in the 8–16
Hz range to produce a change of consciousness in receptive viewers.
Later years
In April 1974, while sitting at a social engagement, Gysin had a very noticeable rectal bleeding. In May he wrote to Burroughs complaining he was not feeling well. A short time later he was diagnosed with
colon cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...
and began to receive cobalt treatment. Between December 1974 and April 1975, Gysin had to undergo several surgeries, among them a very traumatic
colostomy
A colostomy is an opening ( stoma) in the large intestine (colon), or the surgical procedure that creates one. The opening is formed by drawing the healthy end of the colon through an incision in the anterior abdominal wall and suturing it int ...
, that drove him to extreme depression and to a suicide attempt. Later, in ''Fire: Words by Day – Images by Night'' (1975), a crudely lucid text, he would describe the horrendous ordeal he went through.
In 1985 Gysin was made an American Commander of the French
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...
. He'd begun to work extensively with noted
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
soprano saxophonist
Steve Lacy. They recorded an album in 1986 with French musician Ramuntcho Matta, featuring Gysin singing/rapping his own texts, with performances by Lacy,
Don Cherry
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
,
Elli Medeiros
Elli Medeiros (born 18 January 1956) is a Uruguayan-French singer and actress.
Career
Stinky Toys
Originally from Uruguay, Medeiros moved to Paris, France, at the age of 14, dropped out of high school a couple of years later and joined the ...
,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Martine-Elisabeth "Lizzy" Mercier Descloux (16 December 1956 – 20 April 2004) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter.
Early life
Mercier Descloux grew up in Lyon, France, but returned to her native Pari ...
and more. The album was reissued on CD in 1993 by
Crammed Discs
Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 375 albums and 275 ...
, under the title ''Self-Portrait Jumping''.
Death
On 13 July 1986 Brion Gysin died of lung cancer. Anne Cumming arranged his funeral and for his ashes to be scattered at the
Caves of Hercules
The Caves of Hercules is an archaeological cave complex located in Cape Spartel, Morocco.
Location
Situated west of Tangier, the popular tourist attraction is adjacent to the summer palace of the King of Morocco.
Topography
The cave has tw ...
in Morocco.
An obituary by Robert Palmer published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described him as a man who "threw off the sort of ideas that ordinary artists would parlay into a lifetime career, great clumps of ideas, as casually as a locomotive throws off sparks". Later that year a heavily edited version of his novel, ''The Last Museum'', was published posthumously by
Faber & Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...
(London) and by
Grove Press
Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...
(New York).
As a joke, Gysin had contributed a recipe for
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
fudge to a cookbook by
Alice B. Toklas; it was included for publication, becoming famous under the name
Alice B. Toklas brownies.
Burroughs on the Gysin cut-up
In a 1966 interview by Conrad Knickerbocker for ''
The Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...
'', William S. Burroughs explained that Brion Gysin was, to his knowledge, "the first to create cut-ups":
A friend, Brion Gysin, an American poet and painter, who has lived in Europe for thirty years, was, as far as I know, the first to create cut-ups. His cut-up poem, ''Minutes to Go'', was broadcast by the BBC and later published in a pamphlet. I was in Paris in the summer of 1960; this was after the publication there of ''Naked Lunch''. I became interested in the possibilities of this technique, and I began experimenting myself. Of course, when you think of it, ''The Waste Land
''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
'' was the first great cut-up collage, and Tristan Tzara had done a bit along the same lines. Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy.
Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...
used the same idea in 'The Camera Eye' sequences in ''USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
''. I felt I had been working toward the same goal; thus it was a major revelation to me when I actually saw it being done.
Influence
According to José Férez Kuri, author of ''Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age'' (2003) and co-curator of a major retrospective of the artist's work at The Edmonton Art Gallery in 1998, Gysin's wide range of "radical ideas would become a source of inspiration for artists of the
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...
, as well as for their successors (among them
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
,
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
,
Keith Haring
Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...
, and
Laurie Anderson
Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
)".
[Kuri, ''Tuning in to the Multimedia Age'', coverflap.] Other artists include
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was a singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions arti ...
,
John Zorn
John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...
(as displayed on the 2013's
Dreamachines
''Dreamachines'' is an album by John Zorn recorded in New York City in April 2013 and released on the Tzadik Records, Tzadik label in July 2013.[Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...](_blank)
.
Selected bibliography
Gysin is the subject of John Geiger's biography, ''Nothing Is True Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin'', and features in ''Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine'', also by Geiger. ''Man From Nowhere: Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin'', a biographical study of Burroughs and Gysin with a collection of homages to Gysin, was authored by Joe Ambrose,
Frank Rynne
Frank Rynne is an Irish-born singer, record producer, art curator, film-maker, writer, and historian. He has played in three bands Those Handsome Devils in 1984, The Baby Snakes (1985-1994) and Islamic Diggers (1996- ). He has produced three CD ...
, and Terry Wilson with contributions by
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...
,
John Cale
John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styl ...
, William S. Burroughs,
John Giorno
John Giorno (December 4, 1936 – October 11, 2019) was an American poet and performance artist. He founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experiments and events, inc ...
,
Stanley Booth
Stanley Booth (born January 5, 1942, in Waycross, Georgia) is a Memphis, Tennessee-based American music journalist. Characterized by Richie Unterberger as a "fine, if not extremely prolific, writer who generally speaking specializes in portraits o ...
,
Bill Laswell
William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, w ...
,
Mohamed Hamri
Mohamed Hamri (August 27, 1932 – August 29, 2000), commonly known as Hamri, was a Moroccan painter and author. Self-described as "The painter of Morocco," Hamri was one of the few Moroccans to participate in the Tangier Beat scene.
He was bo ...
,
Keith Haring
Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...
and
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
. A monograph on Gysin was published in 2003 by Thames and Hudson.
Works
Prose
*''To Master, A Long Goodnight: The History of Slavery in Canada'' (1946)
* ''Minutes to Go'' (1960)
*''The Exterminator'' (1960)
*''
The Process'' (1969)
*''Brion Gysin Let The Mice In'' (1973)
*''
The Third Mind'' (1978), with
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
*''Here To Go: Planet R-101'' (first published 1982)
*''Stories'' (1984)
*''The Last Museum'' (1985)
Radio
*''Pistol Poem'' (1960)
*''Permutations'' (1960)
*''I Am'' (1960)
* ''No Poets'' (1962)
* ''Junk is No Good Baby'' (1962)
Cinema
*''Scenario to
Naked Lunch
''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the na ...
'' (1973)
Music
*''
Songs
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...
'' (hat ART, 181) with
Steve Lacy
*''Junk'' (1985)
*''Self-Portrait Jumping'' (with Ramuntcho Matta, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy) (1993)
Painting
*''Les deux faux interlocuteurs'', ''Gradiva Rediviva Zoe Bertgang'', and ''Signe dans le paysage'' (Surrealist ink drawings, 1935)
*''Sahara Sand'' (1958)
*''The Songs of Marrakech'' (1959)
*''Unit II pink, Unit III yellow, Unit IV orange, Unit V blue'' (1961)
*''Francis in the Beat Hotel'' (1962)
*''For a Stained-Glass Window in Rheims'' (1963)
*''Roller Poem'' (1971)
*''Calligraffiti of Fire'' (1986)
Sources
Print
Primary sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Secondary sources
*Morgan, Ted. ''Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs''. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988, 2012.
*Kuri, José Férez, ed. ''Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003.
*Geiger, John. ''Nothing Is True Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin''. Disinformation Company, 2005.
*Geiger, John. ''Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine''. Soft Skull Press, 2003.
*Ambrose, Joe, Frank Rynne, and Terry Wilson. ''Man From Nowhere: Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin''. Williamsburg: Autonomedia, 1992
*Vale, V. ''William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle''. San Francisco: V/Search, 1982.
See also
*
Asemic writing Asemic may refer to:
* Asemia
Asemia is the term for the medical condition of being unable to understand or express any signs or symbols.
It is a more severe condition than aphasia, which is the inability to understand linguistic signs. Asemia i ...
*
Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan at Jajouka
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...
References
External links
*
UBU SoundArticle on Brion Gysin
briongysin.com articleWhat Does Brion Gysin's Art Mean?
CutupThe Burroughs & Gysin Non-Linear Adding Machine
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir AttarOfficial website
Master Musicians of JoujoukaOfficial website
Review of ''Back in No Time: A Brion Gysin Reader'' (2001)
Terry Wilson's account of his "lifetime apprenticeship" with Brion Gysin
on Gysin and Jajouka
on the Dream Machine and free Dream Machine plans
Official website of FLicKeRa film on Brion Gysin and the Dream Machine based on Geiger's book
by
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and Aesthetics, art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.
Life and work
...
A page on the ''Self-Portrait Jumping'' album, including audio excerptsBrion Gysin WebsiteStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gysin, Brion
1916 births
1986 deaths
Canadian atheists
Canadian people of English descent
Beat Generation writers
Canadian contemporary painters
William S. Burroughs
People educated at Downside School
People from Taplow
20th-century Canadian painters
Canadian male painters
Canadian male novelists
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
20th-century Canadian novelists
LGBT writers from England
Canadian gay writers
Deaths from lung cancer in France
United States Army personnel of World War II