nicholas nicola etchings


American War Boogie-Woogie

In the following on the download - please open up - is a series of visual (or concretre) poems that I had developed into a small book. These poems specifically deal with the theme of U.S. involvement in Iraq; although on a general level invasion and torture are considered. (The immoral manner of the war in Iraq and the arbitrary killing and dehumanisation of many human beings somewhat reminds me of the many recent U.S. proxy wars in Central America). The boogie-woogie is in reference to Piet Mondrian as the 'visual patterns' of the poems remind me of the bright colours in his painting which references New York Broadway Boogie-Woogie; 'boogie-woogie' is a term that to me astutely refers to the 'vibrant capitalism' of the United States which - can be argued - is often accompanied with many deadly overseas imperial incursions by its military. For instance, the same country that gives us Hollywood also 'gave' us the My Lai massacre.

At the very end of the download are the poems in conventional text so you may read them in case you cannot 'read' some of the poems. I have the idea that you spend time 'decoding' the poem until you are able to read what it actually says. In some cases this is very straight forward in other cases this can be a little difficult.

Why a download to view?

Due to particular technical difficulties it has been proven that through the 'secondary step' of a dowmload rather than by  a direct interface on a webpage is for the time being the best way to view these visual poems. 

Reduce to 50% to view full image

I have found that it is necessary to reduce the view size of the pdf file to 50% to see several of the poems in their full entirety.

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front cover - due to prohibitive printing costs the poems were only published in black  & white. Fortunately, printing costs are not an issue in cyberspace. 

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A one-off colour version printout of an american war boogie-woogie poem in the original etching catalogue.

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americanwarboogiefinalmay22.pdf americanwarboogiefinalmay22.pdf
Size : 0.134 Kb
Type : pdf

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Download print

If you choose to select a particular poem and print it off feel free to do so but if you are so inclined to make a donation (recommended minimum $US1.25) that would be appreciated. Highlight the poem you want and use the selection option on your printer so you print that particular poem and not the whole document. If you would like to try a type of acid free art paper it will enhance the quality of your print; also an inkjet print is usually superior to a colour laser print.  

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