ANTIGONE WINTER 2020
ISSUE NO. 04
On the cover: Yuriko Yamamoto
Editorial: SimonĂŠ Walt, Kimberlin Brink Contributing Writers: Vanessa Chan, Beli Ya Al, Danielle Van Meter, Lauren Weinhold Artists: Yuriko Yamamoto, Marta Quaresma, Agnieszka Szubert Contact us: teawithantigone@gmail.com Facebook | Instagram | Medium | Newsletter | Support Antigone
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CONTENTS
Find out more about the artist on page 29
Living - inspiration for intentional living drawn from
8.
art, books, and more - What We Notice by Vanessa Chan
14.
- Social Distance by Kimberlin Brink & SimonĂŠ Walt
18.
- An Ode to Shyness by Beli Green
22. 24.
28.
Reading - find your next read here - Quarantine Reads by Danielle van Meter - Widening the Worldview by Lauren Weinhold Creating - original poetry and art from contributors - Eyes Wide Open by Wendy Ramos
29.
- Collage Artist Yuriko Yamamoto
30.
- Collage Artist Marta Quaresma
31.
- Collage Artist Agnieszka Szubert
32.
Footnotes - Upcoming releases - Acknowledgements
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Welcome to the fourth issue of Antigone
On Tuesday, the 4th of August, I was tapping through Instagram stories when I came across a video of a Middle Eastern city with a volcano-like column of smoke rising above it. Plumes rose into the perfectly blue sky. Then it seemed to almost cave in on itself as a second explosion tore from the smoke. And it was like that shock blasted right out of the screen, all the way out of Beirut, right into my living room, and into my body. That video haunted me for days. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I couldn’t process the magnitude of what I had seen, so unlike anything I’d come across in my lifetime before, not even in movies. The explosion in Beirut was one of many shocks emanating from my phone screen. From the US to Italy to South Africa and the very town I live in. I’ve been seeing the world through this rectangle for the past few months and it seems so perfectly usual at this point that it might sound glib to even point it out. Indeed, the moment you raise any questions on the topic it’s hard not to sound merely like a finger-wagging technophobe. But I think it’s the job of writers to make unfamiliar (to make visible again) that which we have become so accustomed to. To make us see anew that which we’ve become blind to through familiarity. And before we get too used to things as they are now, before we leap to declaring something a “new normal”, it may be worth asking why we are so ready to settle for that. Because a “new” normal is essentially the “old” normal with slight adjustments. We are so keen to settle back into something familiar, even when that thing has been shown to be utterly broken. New normal is bailing out corporations and banks. New normal is sacrificing lives by lifting lockdown restrictions before it is safe to do so. There is nothing new or revolutionary or groundbreaking about any of this; we are bumbling along like we have been for years. Do not settle for a new normal, not when real change is so close at hand. How we see the world and how we see each other may have become rigidly bound to our screens, but perhaps we can take this opportunity to see our friends or family or coworkers in a whole new way. If we are travelling only virtually now, take this opportunity to radically change how you interact with the world. There is nothing normal about being able to almost reach through your screen into a whole different country, to make a new friend on the other side of the planet, to raise money for a cause with the click of a button. There is nothing normal about this and if we can just change the way we look at it, we might find it is the greatest gift.
All the best, Simoné
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NEW NORMAL NEW NORMAL NOR NEWMAL NAL NORMEW WEN MALNOR LAMRON WEN EN LAMNORW NWEN LAMRO AMRON WENL 5
Plum-Seeing Month: Second Month, Isoda Koryūsai (1735–1790)
Hana asa wa kashi Omo na kokore ya Ume azami.
Even moss and shrubs catch my eyes When they are flowering. How can I overlook the plum and thistle In full bloom?
What We Notice By Vanessa Chan If you walked out of the room that you’re in right now, pen and paper, would you be able to draw it from memory? Make a list of the things inside? Describe it in 10 nonmetaphorical statements? These questions are some of the 131 prompts suggested by Rob Walker in his book The Art of Noticing. The book was inspired by the open-ended assignment he leaves for his NYC School of Visual Arts graduate students: practise paying attention. It’s what transforms looking into seeing. To budding designers, and anyone who’s looking for a creative vitamin boost, he advises that “making a habit of noticing helps cultivate an original perspective, a distinct point of view.”
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These prompts draw inspiration from artists, writers, students, and various others who contributed their approaches to noticing, organised into five chapters (Looking, Sensing, Going Places, Connecting with Others, Being Alone). His editor sums it up: “First you look around, then you end up looking inside.” Structural direction aside, the statement reflects the truthfulness of the book’s subtitle, “rediscover what really matters to you”. What you pay attention to reveals a state of mind, a set of concerns, suggests the conditions under which these observations are made. I first skimmed through this book mid-2019, prejudiced against the yuppie self-help coffee-table kind of book I’d
thought it’d be. The kind that seemed to speak to a middleclass white professional audience residing in cities I’d never been to. I mean, the suggestion to “Donate Time” as a response to ‘time famine’, s o a s t o c h a n g e o n e ’s perspective of time spent, wouldn’t resonate with anyone who works two jobs, or for whom the principles of mutual aid is a material condition. That being said, the slightly offset eyes on its cover seemed to look back at me from the world outside. When the small gallery I’d been sitting in emptied out at lunch, I started paying attention to the lighting. For a particular installation of empty hourglasses, brown coffee filters were fitted around the
“ To budding designers, and anyone who’s looking for a creative vitamin boost, (Walker) advises that “making a habit of noticing helps cultivate an original perspective, a distinct point of view.”
lights, softening the edges of the spotlight and casting fascinating patterns onto the ceiling. I sat on the floor, changing my position every now and then, considering the relationship of works in the room as their arrangement shifted in my view. Did I mine some previously unassessed profundity, or was I simply playing both the caged animal and its enrichment team for the afternoon? Both options are equally satisfying, in Walker’s view. The book can be discussed in the context of art, design, business, but also leisure, and the personal. Sarah Todd makes note of the intersection b e t w e e n f o c u s i n g o n e ’s attention and mindfulness, an obsession that only grows in proportion to the ‘attention panic’ of an increasingly noisy,
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uncertain world. Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slow hasn’t gotten any less relevant or popular since its 2004 release. The desire to live with intention and regain control amidst the sweeping currents of urban life h a s b e e n e x p re s s e d a n d explored in every wellness column and social media detox wrap-up post you’ve ever read, so I won’t press the point. A year on, COVID has deepened the complexity of this particular flavour of modern discontent. We have been experiencing both an awareness of our interdependent fates and the isolation of physical separation, a simultaneous disconnection from the external world and h y p e r- c o n n e c t i o n d u e t o accelerated digitisation. This reality colours everything.
The prompt “Make a Weekly List” is inspired by American activist Amy Siskind documenting the gradual transformation of democratic norms. Whether your list zooms in on encroaching authoritarianism, like the original, or something more mundane, the point is that ‘normal’ is whatever we stop
noticing. When every second headline is proclaiming the unprecedented and the ‘new normal’, while the world is literally on fire, this exercise becomes particularly destabilising. The instruction to “Look Out A Window” we usually take for granted and contemplate what we can’t control is a lot more depressing than inspiring at the moment. The book is its own salve, though. “Exhaust A Place”, calls attention to the ‘infraordinary’, French writer Georges Perec’s critique of media sensationalism. In his book An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, he made a list of everything he saw, save for the monumental architecture around him, a stubbor n commitment to the ‘poetry of the everyday’ in opposition to the big things that govern our lives. In fact, this is what
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“ Prelinger argues we should record, “things that over time will change and are very much tied to our historical era”. “ Tr e a s u r e t h e D r e g s ” , appropriate from preexisting material, “Search for the Big in the Small”. The conceptual distinction between prompts is often weak, but that itself opens up possibilities. What details capture this period of your life? I thought of this list that I’d k e p t d u r i n g S i n g a p o r e ’s lockdown: - Burning sugar - Frying aromatics - Fumigation - Cigarette smoke - Japanese curry - Teriyaki sauce - Browning butter - Fried eggs - Burning toast - Jasmine oil - Fried chicken
In the end: “Our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or by default.” It is a survival strategy to look with curiosity, joy, and playfulness. To engage fully in life so as to make it bearable.
“
archivist and filmmaker Rick
I collected these scents from my tenth floor living room. The olfactory experiences suggested the people and actions that had created them, a perception no less substantial than the visual. They slipped imperceptibly between the public and private, communicating an alienated intimacy made uniquely possible by the familiar theatre within which I received them. In extraordinary times, there’s pleasure taken from knowing that all around you the everyday was happening, that the city would offer you comfort in anonymous connection. In the end: “Our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or by default.” It is a survival strategy to look with curiosity, joy, and playfulness. To engage fully in life so as to make it bearable.
∞
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Saint Lucy Collage by Agnieszka Szubert @koolazowa (more about the artist on page 32)
The Social Media
Distance With the theme of seeing and being seen, social
distance that comes with the territory. With two
media has naturally come up often in submissions
screens between each of us in any given
we’ve received for this issue. Social media is
interaction on social media, it is worth considering
arguably now the primary format through which
how this affects the way we see each other, the
we see each other; during lockdown it became
world, and ourselves.
the only format for many of us. Editors Kimberlin and Simoné discussed their While we’re unbelievably fortunate to have had
preferred social media platforms, how they make
this connection with each other throughout this
sure to use it mindfully, and how distancing
time of social distancing and while it has brought
yourself from social media for a short while can
us closer in many ways, there is a different kind of
give you a new perspective on it.
“We are forced to see more yet given fewer tools and less time to think about seeing. If we cannot stop the pace of images, if we cannot remove ourselves from the pipeline of contemporary living, then we must carve out spaces to think, debate, and come to terms with this visual world.” — Visual Culture, Alexis L. Boylan
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Kimberlin: Twitter
reached a breaking point. And one morning, just after New Year’s Eve at 2am, I deleted all my
I like being armed with
social media apps.
information. I’ve always been a know-it-
At first it was jarring, particularly being without
all in that way. During
Twitter, which I'd used as a news source for so
high school, I took
long. Not constantly being in the loop on current
comfort in things like
affairs and global politics was a very
general knowledge
uncomfortable feeling for someone who likes to
and trivia games, and
arm themselves with information. I only managed
tried to have an
to stay off Twitter for a month before I re-
opinion on everything.
downloaded it, but I made an effort to unfollow
In university, my
anyone who I felt was too negative. I followed
anxiety-riddled brain
more "frivolous" accounts to liven up a very
clung to any bits of rational information it could in
serious, doom and gloom feed. I finally made my
order to make sense of a world that was looking
profile public and followed friends and
increasingly like a cruel and random game of
acquaintances and Twitter became a much more
chance. Knowledge became both a weapon and a
welcoming, pleasant place.
coping mechanism. I rationalised that if I knew just a little more than the next person, it might ease some of the constant pressure on my chest. And so, perhaps it isn’t surprising that Twitter quickly became my social media platform of choice. I followed various authors, journalists, reporters, analysts and commentators, in an almost desperate attempt to keep abreast of the never-ending stream of ‘unprecedented events’ that flooded my timeline. Halfway through 2019, I went through a massive depressive episode, the biggest I'd had since being diagnosed. All I did for a little over two months was lay in bed and scroll through my feed. When September came and the heartbreaking news of Uyinene Mrwetyana’s* death was confirmed, my insomnia meant spending even more waking hours feverishly refreshing Twitter. I stayed in a hyperaware, anxious state for the rest of 2019, desperately trying to maintain
* Uyinene "Nene" Mrwetyana was a 19 year old film and media student at the University of Cape Town. She went missing on August 24th 2019, which led her friends and subsequently her fellow students to launch a prominent social media campaign, with the hashtag #BringNeneHome, for her safe return. The campaign was quickly picked up by local and national news. After more than a week since her disappearance, her body was found.Her rape and murder sparked nation-wide protests and campus shutdowns against gender based violence, especially on university campuses where female students, Uyinene herself, had been calling for heightened protection against GBV. Her life, death and legacy have been a prominent feature of discourse on GBV ever since.
enough focus to graduate. Obviously I soon
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Simoné: Instagram
escape notice” in her collection of essays How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency:
We’ve somewhat come to take it as a given that websites
“The impulse to escape notice is not about
like Facebook and
complacent isolation (…), but about maintaining
Instagram are
identity, propriety, autonomy, and voice. It is not
surveilling us. But it
about retreating from the digital world but about
has become equally
finding some genuine alternative to a life of perpetual display.”
ubiquitous that we have the ability to
A life of perpetual display also means your life is
access information about other people as well. In Visual Culture, Alexis L. Boylan writes: “Permission doesn’t matter much. At some point, access and surveillance have become ubiquitous. We assume that all have the power to look, and that someone always has the power to look at us.” (19) This led me to wonder how cutting all ties with social media, would affect how I looked at other people. This way of interacting with the world and with our friends is so starkly different from how we do it in “real life”. It’s such a strange way to meet a new person, through their online presence. Instead of discovering things about them bit by bit, everything is there all at once: date of birth, university, workplace, major life events. The whole person— flayed out in front of you with all the facts of their life on display. I’ve always liked the idea of living in desolate places: the middle of the Sahara; adrift somewhere on a sailboat in the Atlantic. I chalked this up to being an introvert, but now I wonder if it doesn’t have more to do with having partly grown up under the ever-watchful gaze of the Internet. Akiko Busch calls this “the impulse to
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there to be compared with other lives. Whether we intend to or not, social media ends up being a comparison game. And instead of only comparing ourselves with those in our circle of friends, we often end up comparing ourselves to everyone out there. No wonder it’s depressing. It also means your life is there to be commented on. In Greek plays, the chorus was supposed to bring wisdom into the narrative. Social media sometimes feels like living with a chorus of comments on everything we do and everything we share. Instead of bringing any clarity, it only brings confusion. Over the years I’ve sought various ways to remind myself not to fall into this comparison trap or into the confusion of so many voices giving feedback on my life. During the pandemic, I also tried to challenge how I viewed people and kept a watchful eye on any judgements I might have made (positive or negative) about them based on their Instagram presence. One of the most effective ways to do this is by making social media breaks a regular habit: one day per week, one weekend per month, even one month per year. It reorients me back to the “real world” and gives a necessary distance from the digital one for a little while.
∞
Recommended Reads
Visual Culture by Alexis L. Boylan (MIT Press,
How to Disappear by Akiko Busch (Penguin,
2020)
2020)
“The visual surrounds us, some of it invited, most
“In our networked and image-saturated lives, the
of it not. In this visual environment, everything we
notion of disappearing has never been more
see—color, the moon, a skyscraper, a stop sign, a
alluring. Today, we are relentlessly encouraged,
political poster, rising sea levels, a photograph of
even conditioned, to reveal, share, and promote
Kim Kardashian West—somehow becomes
ourselves. The pressure to be public comes not
legible, normalized, accessible. How does this
just from our peers, but from vast and pervasive
happen? How do we live and move in our visual
technology companies that want to profit from
environments? This volume in the MIT Press
patterns in our behavior. A lifelong student and
Essential Knowledge series offers a guide for
observer of the natural world, Busch sets out to
navigating the complexities of visual culture,
explore her own uneasiness with this
outlining strategies for thinking about what it
arrangement, and what she senses is a
means to look and see—and what is at stake in
widespread desire for a less scrutinized way of life
doing so.
—for invisibility.
Visual culture has always been inscribed by the
How to Disappear is a unique and exhilarating
dominant and by domination. This book suggests
accomplishment, overturning the dangerous
how we might weaponise the visual for positive,
modern assumption that somehow fame and
unifying change. Drawing on both historical and
visibility equate to success and happiness.
contemporary examples (…) Alexis Boylan
Accessing timeless truths in order to speak to our
considers how we engage with and are
most urgent contemporary problems, Busch
manipulated by what we see.”
inspires us to develop a deeper appreciation for personal privacy in a vast and intrusive world."
* Blurbs courtesy of respective publishers
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An Ode To Shyness
Photo by Pragyan Bezbaruah
By Beli Green
“L’enfer c’est les autres”
Hell is other people; Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in his
Sartre wrote extensively on what the other’s gaze
play No Exit. By this, he didn’t mean that the
does to someone. In Being and Nothingness, he
presence of other people is insufferable, but that,
argues that without the gaze of the other, it is
should my relationship with others be tainted,
impossible to be aware of one’s self, since only
then life altogether becomes tainted.
through the other’s gaze can one see themselves as an object. Only through the other’s gaze can they see themselves from another perspective.
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We see ourselves because others see us. This is, according to him, a necessary element to reevaluate one’s self. I don’t believe our era is any vainer than the previous ones, but I do believe that the social pressure surrounding the way we present ourselves has taken a different shape. With social media, we aren’t only submitted to the gaze of people we encounter, but also to the gaze of complete strangers who live half the world away. All while being told “not to pay attention to what people think” in fear of becoming shallow, vain, and superficial. But according to Sartre, not paying attention to another’s gaze is not only impossible but also not advisable. Foregoing the other’s gaze is to also forego our only tool at re-assessing who we are and who we want to be. How can we know the limits of our self if we don’t have a mirror to look at? So, no, paying attention to how people perceive
Portrait of an unknown woman (Portret van een onbekende vrouw) (1913) by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita.
you doesn’t make you an awful self-centred person. I am very shy and quite self-conscious and I have often been chastised by my friends and family for being so concerned with what people thought of me. I’d then feel guilty every time I didn’t do something because I felt too uncomfortable, admonishing myself to stop caring and just do the damn thing like everybody else. This, as you might imagine, didn’t really help my self-esteem. I’d either feel like a coward for not daring to do something or if I actually did the thing I’d feel awfully uncomfortable and exposed, sometimes accompanied by a fair deal of feeling like a fraud. On rare occasions, I admit I would actually be glad I had managed to grab hold of my
We live in a society in which being shy is seen as a flaw, an obstacle to overcome. The media is full of extraverts, of larger than life personalities, of people whose lives revolve around interaction and attention. Actors, politicians, influencers; popularity and extravagance are qualities to revere. We are being told to embrace our lives and live it to the fullest. And in those narratives, not doing something because it makes you uncomfortable is presented as a failure. As a missed opportunity. Shyness, prudishness, and general dislike for public attention are looked down as flaws. Introverts are often told to “open up”. Shy people are told to “learn to let go” or to “be brave”.
courage.
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In short, those traits, which we perceive thanks to
It took me a while to figure out how to do this. To
the reflection society presents us of ourselves, are
me, it boiled down to two things:
seen as negative. But what if we did “embrace who we are”? Embraced the shyness. Embraced
‣ figuring out what really made me the happiest
the prudishness.
‣ feeling around my shyness and prudishness to figure out its limits and what I could tolerate.
We know society is biased towards extraversion, so the mirror in which we see ourselves is not
The first step for me was to stop making myself
impartial. It is biased, bent by society’s
uncomfortable by feeling like I had to overcome
expectations and values. So, though the image
my shyness, by forcing myself to be outwardly
that we see in it is useful, we need to be aware of
and extroverted when I didn’t feel like it. We
its distortion. Shyness doesn’t have to be a
don’t all need to be under the spotlight and I am
terrible flaw to be overcome, but simply a trait of
actually glad to leave it to those who enjoy it. I
your personality. Something to be claimed and
am happier living a quiet, unassuming life. It’s not
respected. We saw with the lockdown how relying
very sexy. It’s not novel worthy. But all in all, that’s
on outside interactions to have a sense of
how I feel happiest. It took a while to get rid of
existence can also be harmful. So why not
the idea that I was wasting opportunities.
embrace your shyness? Then, I learnt to say no to things I knew would make me uncomfortable, even if it would help my popularity or my image. It goes with the first step, but this one is more about resisting the siren call of well-meaning people who see shyness as an obstacle. It took a while, but it helped me find out which of the people I called friends actually loved me for who I am and not just for who I forced myself to look like. People learnt to see me in a smaller community, not to pressure me into doing things I didn’t feel comfortable with. And finally, I learnt to explore my shyness, on my own, and see how far I felt comfortable going. It’s not that peoples’ gazes have stopped influencing me. It’s that I used it to re-assess my priorities and I am now much more at peace with the reflection people show me of myself. So, do look at what people show you of yourself, and embrace it. Or change it. But don’t let it Masked woman (Gemaskerde vrouw) (c.1899) by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita.
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make you feel inadequate.
∞
Collage by Marta Quaresma @cut.by.marta (more about the artist on page 30)
Quarantine Reads: Four Books to Read in a Pandemic By Danielle Van Meter What do we do when our worlds get smaller—
Literature has always allowed us to expand our
when our entire life shrinks to the four walls of a
minds and worlds, even when our physical worlds
house? For most of us on this half of 2020, we
shrink; with one library visit we can see the search
know what that’s like.
for the sublime in the 19th century, a glimpse into a new land, or a reflection of humanity’s deepest
According to new research from The Reading
shared desires.
Agency, a British literacy charity, there has been a significant uptick in reading during quarantine— almost a third of people have read more books this year than previous years. Major booksellers have similarly seen their online sales of fiction increase astronomically. It seems that being
“Literature has always allowed us to expand our minds and worlds, even when our physical worlds shrink…”
forced into our homes has given us a global craving for the written word.
Here are four book suggestions that may allow you to see the current pandemic in different ways.
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The Plague by Albert Camus
deal and refuses to be bothered for anyone else's good sounds familiar! It also leaves readers with
This novel takes place in Oran, Algeria, where
relevant questions that we can take with us into a
there is a plague epidemic after hundreds of rats
post-pandemic world about the value of life and
die. Camus shows various reactions to the
shared humanity.
epidemic through different characters and, by doing that, he guides us to understand how
Silas Marner by George Elliott
people around us react to stress. Though this book is an allegory for Nazi occupation, his
Silas Marner tells the story of a man by the same
descriptions of the daily death toll and lockdowns
name who has had many misfortunes befall him.
seem eerily relatable to our world today. Be
He sinks into depression, eventually sequestering
forewarned, though, this book is not for those
himself in the woods for many years- until an
with weak stomachs.
orphaned child arrives at his door. This sweet read takes a good look at the state of isolation and
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne
what we value when everything else is lost. It also
Porter
shows how strangers can turn into family in the
Porter's short novella is an introspective story about a woman who is stricken by the flu epidemic in 1918 as her boyfriend goes off to war. This book is based on Porter's own affliction and survival of the Spanish flu, and her deeply evocative writing explores that experience. The protagonist fades in and out of a fever dream in which she sees death riding on a horse towards her. Porter deals with the death and fear she
worst of crises, and carries with it a lot of implications to how we might view our relationships when we can join each other’s company once again. Through stories of dystopia, humanity, and hope, these books, and many others, keep us connected to the shared pulse of humanity—even from six feet apart.
∞
experienced in an unprecedented time, and gives us an intimate view of what it is like to contract a new and feared virus.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley In a dystopian world, Huxley brilliantly builds a futuristic society that has become completely efficient. Civilisation is indulged to the point that nobody has the drive to better themselves—every need is cared for. Brave New World takes on an eerie light when read through the lens of COVID-19. A society that sees death as no big
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Widening the Worldview with Global Literature Like many online communities,
our Instagram accounts: she
regions, seeking out original
the one that lives on Instagram
had a monthly challenge of
sources, translations, and
– often called “bookstagram”
reading classic literature over
by its members – is a
the span of a year under the
passionate group of readers
hashtag 2020Classics, and I
from all over the globe.
had various themed monthly
Thousands of people share
projects that focused on a
book reviews, literary musings,
regional literature, like
reflections on older materials,
JanuaryinJapan, or a genre,
and speculations on upcoming
like ScienceSeptember.
releases. This vibrancy thrives on the bookstagram hashtag as
We both expressed a desire to
a categorization tool, finding
read more global literature,
other readers’ posts and
and from this idea, our joint
observations, and continuing
project Read The World 21
the dialogue.
took shape. We chose a series
Using this hashtag concept, and the innate desire to share and discuss with other readers —what so many book clubs are built on!—my friend and fellow bookstagrammer and I hatched an idea in early 2020. Rachael of @anovelfamily and I have both run independent reading groups and projects through
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By Lauren Weinhold @end.notes
of monthly prompts over 21 months—starting in April 2020 through the end of 2021—that focused on specific geographic regions of the world, challenging ourselves as well as any readers who wanted to join us, to read one or more books from this region each month. Additionally, we wanted to promote writers from the
publishing companies that
region of MENA: Middle East
specialise in the literature of a
and North Africa. Our first
region or country. From there,
month of Read The World 21
the interpretation was
came at an interesting time, as
one opportunity to
completely open to the readers
the world was experiencing the
‘widen your worldview’
—any genre, any format. When
early days of the coronavirus
possible, we aligned the
pandemic and the beginnings
monthly prompts with cultural
of worldwide lockdowns and
history or heritage months, and
quarantines. In this time of
existing reading projects in the
uncertainty and isolation,
bookstagram community.
people naturally turned to art
Our first official month was April 2020, and we focused on the geographic and cultural
and literature, and the internet as a way to connect. The
“Read !e World 21 is
through the act of reading global literature, and finding a network of other readers who are passionate to do the same thing.”
project quickly took off, with hundreds of participants reading and sharing on the hashtag and planning for
Take a look at your reading list
successive months.
this year. Do most of the writers
At the time of writing, we are in
Were the books primarily
month 7, or 1/3 of the way into this reading project. Several participants have arranged readalongs—reading and discussing books together— and others incorporate Read The World 21 into their own personal goals of reading literature from every country of the world or reading international literary prize winners.
come from 1 or 2 countries? published in the last 3 years? Have you read a book translated from another language this year? Read The World 21 is one opportunity to “widen your worldview” through the act of reading global literature, and finding a network of other readers who are passionate to do the same thing.
∞
For more of Lauren’s book reviews and insights, follow her on Instagram @end.notes. Check out the upcoming reading schedule for #ReadtheWorld21 on the next page. 25
#Readthe —2020— April 2020 – Middle East and North Africa May 2020 – Pacific Islands / Southeast Asia June 2020 – Caribbean July 2020 – Eastern Europe August 2020 – South Asia September 2020 – South America October 2020 – Russia November 2020 – Indigenous North America / Canada December 2020 – West and Central Africa
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eWorld21 —2021— January 2021 – Japan February 2021 – South and East Africa March 2021 – Korea April 2021 – Australia / New Zealand May 2021 – Mexico June 2021 – Scandinavia July 2021 – Central America August 2021 – Balkans September 2021 – Western Europe October 2021 – Central Asia / Caucuses November 2021 – Greater China December 2021 – United Kingdom /Ireland
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Eyes Wide Open Wendy Ramos I notice a difference a change in the atmosphere, A rumour filled with humour amongst Earth’s inhabitants, Believe half of what you see, Look closer, take three. Two eyes on our heads, A third one hides disclosed only during lent, Exposed as a partner in crime with the moon, For they both feel the elephant in the room. I challenge my perspective, Taking joy in random synchronicity. To the left, to the right Something is out of place, Extend to me your grace Closer than my skin, Performed in face, Generations of seeds agog for a taste. I stare at my reflection, is it eye who I see?
Wendy Ramos is a Tampa native who studied Philosophy at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. She is an artist of many mediums, currently working on her first novel.
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Yamamoto’s Garden
Yuriko Yamamoto
is the artist behind this
issue’s cover. A collage artist from Japan, Yuriko creates multi-layered, three-dimensional collages which explore childhood and memory, often through the lens of nature.
Marta Quaresma
is a collage artist based in Lisbon, Portugal. She has a knack for wielding minimal elements into striking, evocative collages about identity and connection. Find more of her work on Instagram and Behance @cut.by.marta
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Marta & . . . Agnieszka @koolazowa
Agnieszka Szubert is a Polish student and artist. She creates bright and joyful digital collages with feminine undertones, drawing inspiration from art, literature, and life.
You can find her on Instagram and buy her pieces on Decobazaar
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Upcoming Releases
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Non-Fiction
Fiction
Poetry
The Story of Contemporary Art by Tony Godfrey (MIT Press)
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova (New Directions)
Double Trio by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions)
November 2020
February 2021
April 2021
“Encountering a work of contemporary art, a viewer might ask, “What does it mean?” “Is it really art?” and “Why does it cost so much?” These are not the questions that E. H. Gombrich set out to answer in his magisterial The Story of Art. Contemporary art seems totally unlike what came before it, departing from the road map supplied by Raphael, Dürer, Rembrandt, and other European masters. In The Story of Contemporary Art, Tony Godfrey picks up where Gombrich left o!, o!ering a live- ly introduction to contemporary art that stretches from Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes to Marina Abramović’s performance art to today’s biennale circuit and milliondollar auctions.”
“With the death of her aunt, the narrator is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia. Carefully reassembled with calm, steady hands, these shards tell the story of how a seemingly ordinary Jewish family somehow managed to survive the myriad persecutions and repressions of the last century.
“For thirty-five years the poet Nathaniel Mackey has been writing a long poem of fugitivemaking like no other: two elegiac, intertwined serial poems—“Song of the Andoumboulou” and “Mu”—that follow a mysterious, migrant “we” through the rhythms and currents of the world with lyrical virtuosity and impassioned expectancy.
In dialogue with writers like Roland Barthes, W. G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, and Osip Mandelstam, In Memory of Memory is imbued with rare intellectual curiosity and a wonderfully soft-spoken, poetic voice.”
Structured in part after the last three movements of John Coltrane’s Meditations—“Love,” “Consequence,” and “Serenity”— Double Trio stretches Mackey’s explorations and improvisations of free jazz into unprecedented poetic territory. Three new books in a spectacular box carry the tradition of the long poem far into the 21st century.” * Blurbs courtesy of respective publishers
Footnotes
Editorial: SimonĂŠ Walt, Kimberlin Brink Contributing Writers: Vanessa Chan, Beli Ya Al, Danielle Van Meter, Lauren Weinhold Artists: Yuriko Yamamoto, Marta Quaresma, Agnieszka Szubert Contact us: teawithantigone@gmail.com Facebook | Instagram | Medium | Newsletter | Support Antigone Copyright @SimonĂŠ Walt 2020
