A. M. Demozay

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

On Balconies is a collection of eleven pieces of writing.

Each piece of writing responds to a painting of a balcony.

Genres are diverse, but most have been chosen because their form suggests a spacial logic that seemed appropriate to the work or, more particularly, to the concept of the balcony (spacial metaphors abound). Some examples of genre are: dialogue (backwards and forwards), serenade (up and down), correspondence (to and from) etc.

Sometimes the writing resisted the structure and took a different path.

Sometimes the writing turned its back on the painting in question.

While I was writing I was thinking about the commonplace book and the Nachlass.

Since I’ve succumbed to using German words, another good one, in relation to this text, is:

Nebeneinander: one next to another.

Things have been gathered and re-presented.

There is no hierarchy of references: from Romeo and Juliet to the musings of my old flatmate – authority is up for grabs.

Association is of importance.

This text provides a space for things to co-inside.

Quotes are like balconies.

Generosity, reciprocity, monism – are some things I think about.

I think of this book as a bowl of spaghetti and, like strands of spaghetti, lines intertwine, cross, pull apart, snap and slide off whilst still constituting a meal.

Everything is a matter of perspective.

Each text is an attempt to find a new way to engage with art.

But why? I am tempted to say that there is no reason, that I am suspicious of reason (which I am) but then you would ask me (again) – why? I am better at talking in examples. I am better at dealing with things. 'On Balconies' is a thing. I wanted to make something – like the things that this thing I have made is looking at. It is not like them but it is a thing like them – it is for them. It is an homage. It is critical but it has no argument. What is it critical of? Criticism – maybe. I have a problem with: if this – then that. I have a problem with straight lines. I have a problem with positivism. Again – why? Because I think things are more complex, more tenuous than that. I follow my enthusiasms – I don’t corral them. I try not to kill them off. Nurturing seems relevant. Making rather than persuading. Loosely gathering more than one kind of thing. Maybe it’s analogue – the degrees of on and off. It has something to do with range – with voices. I made this thing out of other things. The way this thing is made is because of, or in spite of, the way the world is made. I mistrust the logical and the literal because they imply an answer. I believe in multiplicity. I believe in some kind of atemporal web. Which sounds like a dreamcatcher – maybe that’s the business I’m in – macramé.

To read the first chapter of On Balconies, go to: www.amdemozay.com