Under The Ambient Zone: "One in a rolling series of almost instant remixes by Canadian artist Slave Labour of spoken word loops by Jeremy Gluck. 'unterzone' is one part of a trilogy of texts being set to soundscapes by Dave Fuglewicz, Slave Labour, Zebra Mann, OMT, Mental Anguish and other Tapegerm artists."
lave Labour is a worker guy who is also a digital artist. After slaving away in obscurity, trying to start bands with non-musicians, dealing with the fatigue of work & the panic of no-work, surviving the first fourteen tests of the human spirit— all the ways that life might break your heart— & repeatedly retreating to his realm of digital freedom for succour, small windows & doors begin to open on the far side of the realm.
his year, everything changes. In quiet & small ways, he begins forging working relationships with other artists, who are subtle enough to receive what he’s doing, & confident enough to respond with praise & encouragement— “quantity is quality!” chides Jeremy Gluck, impatient for another remix. Gluck is also author of the title quote for this piece, writ in response to one of SL’s remixes of JG’s spoken word works,
perfect in every unway.
call SL on his cell, & noises of the work site tell me he’s not on night shift this week. I know he loves his work of construction & especially, deconstruction, of houses, buildings, theatres, parts thereof. Is he doing that sort of gig, or is he doing a less favoured but possible pay-job this week?
As in the mundane world of physicality, so too in the realms of digital art: what he really loves to do is to make things, & to remake things. A revision artist.
all me when you get a break,” I say.
He does.
“Can i tell them I’m your mum?” I ask.
What was his answer? Something like, “Yup. Sure, Ma.”
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boy with wing, my photo |
am approaching the precise midway point in my own life, 25 years as a singleton, 25 years as a mum: pretty rock & roll journey all together, & what I've learned from interacting with my kids is everything that is important for me to know about being human being.
In my first ten years of parenting, I was equally transfixed by my parents & kids, & wholly occupied with my art-life healing process. In order to nudge things along I took on a project, working title—“o grow up.” I went back through my earlier books & journals, extracted the poetry which was written from a parent perspective, & meditated on the whole.
In the un-writing world, I was consciously striving for that un-rock-&-roll thing, temperance:
rootedness, & balance.
You cannot teach what you haven't yet learned.
On the cutting floor was left all i the child poetry. That was a pretty major cull! I carried on, writing poetry about my thoughts of, feelings for, & encounters with my four, then five, then six children, their interactions with one another and with the world.
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Stu computes, my photo |
I see you sit head bowed/ bathed in the monitor's glow/ your songs and pictures are gleaming across the world/ to people unknown/still from time to time you lift the guitar in hand /and stoop to kiss my cheek in passing
from Into Manhood, Mother Time
was one of my key consultants in developing that manuscript, checking & double & triple checking, trying to see ahead to what longterm influence the collection might have on my flock of muses. He showed great generosity in permitting me to share poetry that grew from his own travails, & those shared with me. From that perspective, he has been a collaborating artist for a very long time.
Later this month:
birthday party, 25 years of upstream struggle
marked with party favours that are not quite
wm s burroughs-approved
not feist, not anti-feist
someone new
Slave Labour images from deviantArt, used with permission of the artist.
Thanks to my amusing friends Russell & Garry for feist/anti-feist ideology