Nailed Rathorics
12 feb - 19 may 2020
Curator: Doxamitrax
Central
Unharias Ratóricas [Nailed Rathorics] is a Von Calhau! exhibition. Unharias is a valise-word that unites Unhas [nails in Portuguese] and Ninharias [knick-knacks]. Unhas [nails] are structures composed by keratin, that can be found on the fingertips of some animals. Ninharias [knick-knacks] are small or insignificant things. Rhatorics is the plural of Rhatoric. Rhatoric is a possible ersatz [substitute] for rhetoric, in which the E of Elusion is replaced by the A of Allusion. Alludes to the image of an animal that also has nails: the Rat.
This allusion is a nod to the Oulipian thesis (1), which states that writers are rats that build labyrinths from where they try to escape. This harmless spreader of diseases is a radical vehicle of virus. And if language is a virus, as stated by a well-known exterminator that sometimes was also a writer (2) then the rat is an amazing vehicle and spreader of words. Words that pile up generating texts. Texts that pile up generating books. The French word for books is Livres [also “to be free” in Portuguese]. Livres standing in front of the mirror ends up being servile. A servile rat looking at the mirror. A servile rat looking at the mirror moving in the dark night, trying to escape the labyrinth whose construction doesn’t stop wanting to construct. To be build in space.
Nailed Rathorics is an exhibition that aims to spatialize a book. A book titled Acéfalanterna [Lantern-Acephalous] (available for consultation in the exhibition space) that will be/was launched on February 29th 2020. The extra day of a leap year reveals itself in the singularity of being a unique point in the calendar, every four years. The exhibition amplifies materials in the book, through their transfer to paper, video or other media, and later to their translation to blind poems, composed with the help of a Perkins Brailler machine, using only the letter A of the braille code, that reveals itself in the singularity of being a unique point in the sheet of paper, every 4 millimeters. The same A of Rhatoric that replaced the E of Rhetoric. But also the A that begins and ends the title of the book: AcefalanternA. Beginning and end touching each other. The mechanics of bissextile materials. The passage of the letter A to point O. From the O of Optic to the A of hAptic. Not one and not the other but the rope that separates them. Not one and not the other but the rope that connects them. Two poles: one black and one white (3), crossing one another. Two polarizations: one white and one black, blending with one another. The final diluting of the poles is made by the activation of the fake thunder, the electric discharge. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Clear!
(1) Oulipo: Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle. Collective of writers and mathematicians (mainly French) founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, whose literary work is based in the exhaustive use of constraints.
(2) William S Burroughs (1914 – 1997). American exterminator and writer. Taking the Oulipian thesis into account, we could say that when he was not exterminating rats Burroughs would join them.
(3) Note: In Portugal, we use the expression “a negro” [“in black”] to designate what is printed in ink (to be seen by the eyes/optic vision) and “a branco” [“in white”] to designate what is embossed printing (what is to be seen by the hands/haptic vision).
