Fitful Thing is a love song to the line that writes it.
A handwritten line of unbroken text runs along the foot of each page as the writer struggles to address the line of ink that issues from the pen. But as long as the writing continues the line cannot be still enough to listen. Fixated on the ever-changing moment of its inscription as the nib careers across the page, the fitful line remains oblivious to the words that shape it.
Fitful Thing is an anthropomorphized expression of the gaps between a text and its writer, its reader and its object, and the impossible hope of their reconciliation. I developed the book as the culmination of my live art residency with the Chisenhale Gallery in 2011, building on my recent research into ‘self apparent’ literature. Details of publication to follow.