Gysin biography

Brion Gysin

British-Canadian painter, writer, sound lyricist, and performance artist

Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian maestro, writer, sound poet, performance virtuoso and inventor of experimental gear.

He is best known put on view his use of the trickster technique, alongside his close keep a note of, the novelist William S.

Inventor. With the engineer Ian Sommerville he also invented the Dreamachine, a flicker device designed owing to an art object to engrave viewed with the eyes squinting. It was in painting famous drawing, however, that Gysin true his greatest efforts, creating excellent works inspired by cursive Nipponese "grass" script and Arabic handwriting.

Burroughs later stated that "Brion Gysin was the only chap I ever respected."[1]

Biography

Early years

John Clifford Brian Gysin was born uncertain the Canadian military hospital be thankful for Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England.[2] His local, Stella Margaret Martin, was copperplate Canadian from Deseronto, Ontario.

Her majesty father, Leonard Gysin, a chieftain with the Canadian Expeditionary Power, was killed in action capability months after his son's inception. Stella returned to Canada boss settled in Edmonton, Alberta wheel her son became "the inimitable Catholic day-boy at an Protestant boarding school".[3] Leaving that institution at the age of xv, Gysin was sent next solve Downside School in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, close by Bath in England, a preeminent school for boys run induce Benedictine monks.

Despite attending both Anglican and Roman Catholic schools, Gysin was already an idel when he left St Joseph's.[4]

Surrealism

In 1934, he moved to Town to study La Civilisation Française, an open course given pretend the Sorbonne where he finished literary and artistic contacts guzzle Marie Berthe Aurenche, Max Ernst's second wife.[5] He joined nobility Surrealist Group and began mixture with Valentine Hugo, Leonor Exhausted, Salvador Dalí, Picasso and Dora Maar.

A year later, grace had his first exhibition heroic act the Galérie Quatre Chemins revel in Paris with Ernst, Picasso, Hans Arp, Hans Bellmer, Victor Brauner, Giorgio de Chirico, Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte, Man Tidy and Yves Tanguy. On greatness day of the preview, on the contrary, he was expelled from description Surrealist Group by André Frenchman, who ordered the poet Feminist Éluard to take down pictures.

Gysin was 19 days old. His biographer, John Physicist, suggests the arbitrary expulsion "had the effect of a agony. Years later, he blamed additional failures on the Breton argument. It gave rise to scheme theories about the powerful interests who seek control of birth art world. He gave assorted explanations for the expulsion, ethics more elaborate involving 'insubordination' defect lèse majesté towards Breton".[5]

After Planet War II

After serving in birth U.S.

army during World Combat II, Gysin published a autobiography of Josiah "Uncle Tom" Puppeteer titled, To Master, a Well ahead Goodnight: The History of Servitude in Canada (1946). A talented draughtsman, he took an 18-month course learning the Japanese words (including calligraphy) that would much influence his artwork.

In 1949, he was among the lid Fulbright Fellows. His goal was to research, at the Hospital of Bordeaux and in influence Archivo de Indias in Seville, Spain, the history of thraldom, a project that he closest abandoned. He moved to City, Morocco, after visiting the infect with novelist and composer Disagreeable Bowles in 1950. In 1952/3 he met the travel litt‚rateur and sexual adventurer Anne Cumming and they remained friends hanging fire his death.[6]

Morocco and the Smite Hotel

In 1954 in Tangier, Gysin opened a restaurant called Influence 1001 Nights, with his pen pal Mohamed Hamri, who was description cook.[7]: 140  Gysin hired the Lord Musicians of Jajouka from interpretation village of Jajouka to tip alongside entertainment that included acrobats, a dancing boy and smouldering eaters.[8][9] The musicians performed here for an international clientele stroll included William S.

Burroughs. Gysin lost the business in 1958,[10] and the restaurant closed forevermore. That same year, Gysin exchanged to Paris, taking lodgings infiltrate a flophouse located at 9 rue Gît-le-Cœur that would pass on famous as the Beat Bed. Working on a drawing, noteworthy discovered a Dada technique stomach-turning accident:

William Burroughs ground I first went into techniques of writing, together, back impossible to tell apart room No.

15 of authority Beat Hotel during the keen Paris spring of 1958... Artificer was more intent on Scotch-taping his photos together into predispose great continuum on the individual, where scenes faded and slipped into one another, than bursting with editing the monster transcript. Naked Lunch appeared and Author disappeared.

He kicked his routine with Apomorphine and flew cut to London to see Dr Dent, who had first loathsome him on to the contract. While cutting a mount avoidable a drawing in room Ham-fisted. 15, I sliced through regular pile of newspapers with tonguetied Stanley blade and thought line of attack what I had said agree to Burroughs some six months early about the necessity for side road painters' techniques directly into scribble literary works.

I picked up the birth words and began to abundance together texts that later emerged as "First Cut-Ups" in Minutes to Go (Two Cities, Town 1960).[11]

When Burroughs returned from Author in September 1959, Gysin mass only shared his discovery recognize his friend but the advanced techniques he had developed patron it.

Burroughs then put influence techniques to use while completion Naked Lunch and the probation dramatically changed the landscape good deal American literature. Gysin helped Author with the editing of not too of his novels including Interzone, and wrote a script make a film version of Naked Lunch, which was never move.

The pair collaborated on organized large manuscript for Grove Small titled The Third Mind, nevertheless it was determined that channel would be impractical to spread about it as originally envisioned. Decency book later published under put off title incorporates little of that material. Interviewed for The Guardian in 1997, Burroughs explained stroll Gysin was "the only human race that I've ever respected crucial my life.

I've admired fill, I've liked them, but he's the only man I've shrewd respected."[12] In 1969, Gysin extreme his finest novel, The Process, a work judged by judge Robert Palmer as "a conventional of 20th century modernism".[13]

A entire innovator, Gysin altered the prankster technique to produce what fiasco called permutation poems in which a single phrase was usual several times with the quarrel rearranged in a different grouping with each reiteration.

An case of this is "I don't dig work, man / Checker, work I don't dig." Numberless of these permutations were copied using a random sequence founder in an early computer promulgation written by Ian Sommerville. Deputized by the BBC in 1960 to produce material for make known, Gysin's results included "Pistol Poem", which was created by lp a gun firing at unlike distances and then splicing description sounds.

That year, the trace was subsequently used as capital theme for the Paris carrying out of Le Domaine Poetique, shipshape and bristol fashion showcase for experimental works bypass people like Gysin, François Dufrêne, Bernard Heidsieck, and Henri Composer.

With Sommerville, he built nobleness Dreamachine in 1961.

Described chimpanzee "the first art object imagine be seen with the contented closed",[14] the flicker device uses alpha waves in the 8–16 Hz range to produce grand change of consciousness in precision viewers.

Later years

In April 1974, while sitting at a common engagement, Gysin had a truly noticeable rectal bleeding.

In May well he wrote to Burroughs captious he was not feeling famously. A short time later take action was diagnosed with colon someone and began to receive ultramarine dejected treatment.[16] Between December 1974 favour April 1975, Gysin had exhaustively undergo several surgeries, among them a very traumatic colostomy, dump drove him to extreme hollow and to a suicide attempt.[17] Later, in Fire: Words impervious to Day – Images by Night (1975), a crudely lucid contents, he would describe the dread ordeal he went through.

In 1985 Gysin was made unmixed American Commander of the Land Ordre des Arts et nonsteroid Lettres. He'd begun to look at carefully extensively with noted jazz acme saxophonist Steve Lacy. They canned an album in 1986 walk off with French musician Ramuntcho Matta, featuring Gysin singing/rapping his own texts, with performances by Lacy, Coconspirator Cherry, Elli Medeiros, Lizzy Mercier Descloux and more.

The jotter was reissued on CD discern 1993 by Crammed Discs, way in the title Self-Portrait Jumping.

Death

On 13 July 1986 Brion Gysin died of lung cancer. Anne Cumming arranged his funeral abstruse for his ashes to rectify scattered at the Caves objection Hercules in Morocco.[18] An 1 by Robert Palmer published thorough The New York Times averred him as a man who "threw off the sort atlas ideas that ordinary artists would parlay into a lifetime lifetime, great clumps of ideas, whilst casually as a locomotive throws off sparks".[19] Later that era a heavily edited version enjoy his novel, The Last Museum, was published posthumously by Faber & Faber (London) and unused Grove Press (New York).

As a joke, Gysin had free a recipe for marijuana equivocate to a cookbook by Ill feeling B. Toklas; it was designated for publication, becoming famous entry the name Alice B. Writer brownies.[20]

Burroughs on the Gysin cut-up

In a 1966 interview by Author Knickerbocker for The Paris Review, William S.

Burroughs explained wander Brion Gysin was, to emperor knowledge, "the first to turn out cut-ups":

A friend, Brion Gysin, an American poet very last painter, who has lived emphasis Europe for thirty years, was, as far as I split, the first to create cut-ups. His cut-up poem, Minutes fro Go, was broadcast by interpretation BBC and later published distort a pamphlet.

I was prosperous Paris in the summer carry 1960; this was after representation publication there of Naked Lunch. I became interested in say publicly possibilities of this technique, near I began experimenting myself. Fanatic course, when you think chastisement it, The Waste Land was the first great cut-up montage, and Tristan Tzara had make happen a bit along the changeless lines.

Dos Passos used interpretation same idea in 'The Camera Eye' sequences in USA. Uncontrolled felt I had been locate toward the same goal; like so it was a major demo to me when I indeed saw it being done.[21]

Influence

According commerce José Férez Kuri, author have available Brion Gysin: Tuning in walkout the Multimedia Age (2003) extort co-curator of a major demonstration of the artist's work be neck and neck The Edmonton Art Gallery space 1998, Gysin's wide range appreciated "radical ideas would become practised source of inspiration for artists of the Beat Generation, chimp well as for their descendants (among them David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Haring, and Laurie Anderson)".[22] Other artists include Creation P-Orridge, John Zorn (as displayed on the 2013's Dreamachines album) and Brian Jones.

Selected bibliography

Gysin is the subject of Bathroom Geiger's biography, Nothing Is Literal Everything Is Permitted: The Authenticated of Brion Gysin, and make-up in Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine, also by Geiger. Man Plant Nowhere: Storming the Citadels bear out Enlightenment with William Burroughs stomach Brion Gysin, a biographical bone up on of Burroughs and Gysin keep an eye on a collection of homages tell somebody to Gysin, was authored by Joe Ambrose, Frank Rynne, and Material Wilson with contributions by Marianne Faithfull, John Cale, William Savage.

Burroughs, John Giorno, Stanley Compartment, Bill Laswell, Mohamed Hamri, Keith Haring and Paul Bowles. Straight monograph on Gysin was publicised in 2003 by Thames nearby Hudson.

Works

Prose

  • To Master, A Unconventional Goodnight: The History of Thraldom in Canada (1946)
  • Minutes to Go (1960)
  • The Exterminator (1960)
  • The Process (1969)
  • Brion Gysin Let The Mice In (1973)
  • The Third Mind (1978), narrow William S.

    Burroughs

  • Here To Go: Planet R-101 (first published 1982)
  • Stories (1984)
  • The Last Museum (1985)
  • Living letter Islam (2010)
  • His Name Was Bravura (Interviews) (2018)

Radio

  • Pistol Poem (1960)
  • Permutations (1960)
  • I Am (1960)
  • No Poets (1962)
  • Junk practical No Good Baby (1962)

Cinema

Music

  • Songs (hat ART, 181) with Steve Lacy
  • Junk (1985)
  • Self-Portrait Jumping (with Ramuntcho Matta, Don Cherry, Steve Lacy) (1993)

Painting

  • Les deux faux interlocuteurs, Gradiva Rediviva Zoe Bertgang, and Signe dans le paysage (Surrealist ink drawings, 1935)
  • Sahara Sand (1958)
  • The Songs be fooled by Marrakech (1959)
  • Unit II pink, Kit out III yellow, Unit IV citrus, Unit V blue (1961)
  • Francis household the Beat Hotel (1962)
  • For on the rocks Stained-Glass Window in Rheims (1963)
  • Roller Poem (1971)
  • Calligraffiti of Fire (1986)

Sources

Print

Primary sources

  • Gysin, Brion (1946).

    To Master, A Long Goodnight: Grandeur History of Slavery in Canada. New York: Creative Age Press.

  • Gysin, Brion; Beiles, Sinclair; Burroughs, William S.; Corso, Gregory (1960). Minutes to Go. Paris: Two Cities Editions.
  • Gysin, Brion; Burroughs, William Merciless. (1960). The Exterminator.

    San Francisco: Auerhahn Press.

  • Gysin, Brion (1969). The Process. New York: Doubleday.
  • Gysin, Brion; Burroughs, William S.; Sommerville, Ian (1973). Jan Herman (ed.). Brion Gysin Let The Mice In'. West Glover, VT: Something If not Press.
  • Gysin, Brion; Burroughs, William Harsh.

    (1978). The Third Mind. Unique York: Viking.

  • Gysin, Brion (1982). Here To Go: Planet R-101 (Interviews with Terry Wilson). London: Composition Books.
  • Gysin, Brion (1984). Stories. Oakland: Inkblot Publications.
  • Gysin, Brion (1986).

    The Last Museum. New York: Wood Press.

  • Gysin, Brion (2000). Who Runs May Read. Oakland/Brisbane: Inkblot/Xochi.
  • Gysin, Brion (2001). Jason Weiss (ed.). Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader. Wesleyan University Press.
  • Gysin, Brion (2010).

    Living With Islam. Providence: Inkblot.

  • Gysin, Brion (2018). His Name Was Master (Interviews accost Genesis P.Orridge). Stockholm: Trapart Books.

Secondary sources

  • Morgan, Ted. Literary Outlaw: Description Life and Times of William S. Burroughs. New York soar London: W.W.

    Norton & On top of, 1988, 2012. ISBN 978-0393342604

  • Kuri, José Férez, ed. Brion Gysin: Tuning amplify to the Multimedia Age. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. ISBN 0-500-28438-5
  • Geiger, John. Nothing Is True Cosmos Is Permitted: The Life learn Brion Gysin. Disinformation Company, 2005. ISBN 1-932857-12-5
  • Geiger, John.

    Chapel of At the end Experience: A Short History attention to detail Stroboscopic Light and the Daze Machine. Soft Skull Press, 2003.

  • Ambrose, Joe, Frank Rynne, and Towelling Wilson. Man From Nowhere: Bravado the Citadels of Enlightenment catch on William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Williamsburg: Autonomedia, 1992
  • Vale, V.

    William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle. San Francisco: V/Search, 1982. ISBN 0-9650469-1-5

See also

References

  1. ^Burroughs, William. "Introduction." in Man from Nowhere: Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment with William Writer and Brion Gysin.

    Ambrose, Joe, Frank Rynne, Terry Wilson. Dublin: Sublimin, 1992, n.p.

  2. ^Geiger, John (2005). Nothing Is True – The whole Is Permitted: The Life taste Brion Gysin. The Disinformation Lying on. p. 130. ISBN .
  3. ^Cf. John Geiger's aid essay on Gysin titled 'Brion Gysin: His Life and Times' in Brion Gysin: Tuning halt the Multimedia Age, ed.

    José Férez Kuri (London: Thames & Hudson, 2003), p. 201

  4. ^John Physicist (2005). Nothing Is True-Everything keep to Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin. Red Wheel/Weiser. p. 5. ISBN .
  5. ^ abCf. John Geiger, 'Brion Gysin: His Life and Times' in Brion Gysin: Tuning impact the Multimedia Age, p.

    204.

  6. ^Richard Davenport-Hines, 'Cumming, (Felicity) Anne (1917–1993)', Oxford Dictionary of National Curriculum vitae, Oxford University Press, 2004; on the net edn, Oct 2009 accessed 11 April 2017
  7. ^Shoemake, J., Tangier: Unadulterated Literary Guide For Travellers (London: I.B.

    Tauris, 2013), p. 140.

  8. ^Greene, Michelle, The Dream at righteousness End of the World, (New York, 1991), p. 123, owner. 201
  9. ^Geiger, John, Nothing is Deduction, Everything is Permitted: the Poised of Brion Gysin, (New Dynasty, 2005), p. 103
  10. ^In his composition "Cut-Ups: A Project for Disconsolate Success," Gysin explains that "on January 5, 1958, I missing the business over a species given to a friendly Denizen couple who 'wanted to advice me out.' I was edit with the shirt on low back." in A Williams Inventor Reader, ed.

    John Calder (London: Picador, 1982), p. 276.

  11. ^Brion Gysin: Cut-Ups: A Project for Afflicted Success, published in Evergreen Review and much later in [Brion Gysin] Let the Mice In, Something Else Press, West Herb 1973; also in the A Williams Burroughs Reader, John Sculpturer (editor), Picador, London 1982, possessor.

    272.

  12. ^The Guardian, 18 January 1997.
  13. ^From Palmer's forward to the contemporary published by The Overlook Urge in 1987.
  14. ^Quoted on coverflap perceive Tuning in to the Footage Age.
  15. ^Chandarlapaty, R., "Woodard and Unfledged Intellectual Possibilities", in Seeing picture Beat Generation (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2019), pp.

    142–146.

  16. ^Cf. John Geiger, Nothing Is Conclude – Everything Is Permitted: Illustriousness Life of Brion Gysin.
  17. ^Cf. Be a success Morgan, Literary Outlaw: The Sure of yourself and Times of William Vicious. Burroughs, p. 512.
  18. ^"Felicity Mason/Anne Cumming – A Brief Biography reprove Interview – Jennie Skerl".

    European Beat Studies Network. 16 Oct 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2017.

  19. ^Cf. John Geiger, 'Brion Gysin: Cap Life and Times' in Brion Gysin: Tuning into the Transmission Age, p. 227.
  20. ^Biographer John Physicist writes that Gysin's restaurant, The 1001 Nights provided him "with an entrée into Tangiers companionship.

    His Moroccan culinary delights collected merited an entry in Spite B. Toklas's famous cookbook, convene a recipe for hashish elude. Toklas, however, had no concept what the mysterious ingredient – cannabis – was, protesting closest 'of course I didn't save the Latin name'." Cf. Can Geiger, 'Brion Gysin: His Philosophy and Times' in Brion Gysin: Tuning into the Multimedia Age, p.

    213.

  21. ^Knickerbocker, Conrad, Burroughs, Reverend S., 'The Paris Review Enquire with William S. Burroughs' necessitate A Williams Burroughs Reader, snooping. John Calder (London: Picador, 1982), p. 263.
  22. ^Kuri, Tuning in teach the Multimedia Age, coverflap.

External links