Kelly Malone is a language artist, a term she coined to encompass how her work ranges from page poems, sound and visual performances, to text-sculptures. Much of her writing has been published, performed, exhibited, cut-up, and reimagined. In 2016-17 the libretto ‘reign of contexti’ was a finalist for the American biennial Leslie Scalapino Award. The piece deploys breath using Morse code in a room showering contexti (made from cut-up handwritten journals) within woven walls (created from stripped handwritten journals).
Kelly's PhD research at the University of Newcastle, NSW, focuses on the field of performance writing in Australia and New Zealand. She is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Programme Scholarship. For more about Kelly and her work, see www.kellymalone.me
Poem notes
The rhythmic instrument in ‘A-U-M’ and ‘A Dash – or Two – Away from Realisation’ is the daf or Persian frame drum. In ‘A-U-M’ the Morse code for A-U-M is being played which hastens in pace contrasted by the slow and metered chant of ‘aum / om.’ ‘A Dash – or – Two Away from Realisation’ plays the Morse code for ‘OM.’ ‘HAU’ is my trademark Morse code breathing, and here I repeat it (‘hau-hau’). In te reo ‘hau’ has a number of resonances, but for the sake of brevity ‘hau’ translates as breath (hau-hau, twice, to the power of two; divine breath) along with that of a present in return for one received. I have dedicated my breathing ‘hau’ to the late Leigh Davis, who produced two HAU flags as part of his 1998 installation Station of Earth-Bound Ghosts. ‘brilliant mistake missing me’ was first published in Shearsman Magazine 97/98 and later appeared as a Phantom Billstickers poem poster.
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