Friday, September 22, 2017

Rippin' for Gordon - #010 - Colin Wilson on the Most Macabre Ritual in the Art

Colin Wilson
Ritual in the Dark



Published by Granada Publishing Limited
in Panther Books 1976
Reprinted 1978

ISBN 0 586 04391 8

First published in Great Britain by
Victor Gollancz Ltd 1960
Copyright © Colin Wilson 1960

Granada Publishing Limited
Frog more, St Albans, Herts AL2 2NF
and
3 Upper James Street, London W1R 4BP
1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, USA
117 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
100 Skyway Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9W 3A6
110 Northpark Centre, 2193 Johannesburg, South Africa
CML Centre, Queen & Wyndham, Auckland 1, New Zealand

Made and printed in Great Britain by
Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd
Bungay, Suffolk
Set in Monotype Plantin

This book is sold subject to the condition that it 
shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, 
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any 
form of binding or cover other than that in 
which it is published and without a similar 
condition including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.

10,5 x 17,7 cm, 418p, softcover



On 22 September 2017 I ripped the 418 pages from Colin Wilson Ritual in the Dark, tore them in half and threw them in the Hole I've been Diggin' for Gordon in a basement at an undisclosed location in Antwerpen since 20 February 2006.
The title refers to Gordon Matta-Clark whose last and major work ‘Office Baroque’ in Antwerpen I illegally visited at the start of my career as an artist. The performance/installation evolved into a ‘mash-up’ with ingredients from the works of various avantgarde artists from the 70’s. For instance a slant row of florescent lights inspired by Dan Flavin takes care of lightning and an endless ladder as imagined by Vito Acconci makes it possible to get in and out of the hole. The work was made visible through a number of side actions and performances where I used some of the dirt I had been digging up. Most of the dirt was used to fill up James Lee Byars' tomb.
As of 9 September 2017 the Hole is filled with precious books from my private library.









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