At the Whitney: Flarf Versus Conceptual Writing

Surely, one of the signs of the Apocalypse . . .

On Friday, April 17 the Whitney Museum of American Art presents eight poets associated with two cutting-edge movements in contemporary poetry: the Flarf Collective and Conceptual Writing. The followers of both movements employ technology to create their works, often using strategies familiar to the visual arts: appropriation, falsification, insincerity, and plagiarism. Fusing the avant-garde impulses of the last century with the technologies of the present, these strategies propose an expanded field for twenty-first century poetry. This new writing is not bound exclusively between pages of a book; it continually morphs from printed page to webpage, from gallery space to science lab, from social spaces of poetry readings to social spaces of blogs. It is a poetics of flux, celebrating instability and uncertainty.

Featured poets are Christian Bök, Nada Gordon, Kenneth Goldsmith, Sharon Mesmer, K. Silem Mohammad, Kim Rosenfield, Gary Sullivan and Darren Wershler.

This event was conceived and organized by poet Kenneth Goldsmith on the occasion of the Jennny Holzer exhibition PROTECT PROTECT. Reading begins at 7, and is free with Museum Admission, which is pay-what-you-wish during Whitney After Hours on Fridays from 6-9 pm. Advance reservations are recommended. Tickets may be reserved at the Museum Admissions desk or online at http://www.whitney.org. Inquiries: (212) 570-7715 or public_programs@whitney.org/