Burroughs writing kit, remembered
Back in 1994, the Disembodied Art Gallery joined with many other artists to celebrate William S Burroughs' 80th birthday. To mark the occasion, I created a limited edition writer's kit that was distributed for free at a WSB birthday party event held in Brighton Polytechnic's hall. The kit contained two cut-out Tee-To-Tums which could be spun and used to stimulate the cut-up writing process. It also contained a syringe, a cut-up poem "Fault on San Andreas" which I posted recently on this blog, and also a small wrap of 'peyote seeds'.
The same pack was also distributed one night at London's ICA at the Abacus night (where at each night of this weekly event, the Disembodied Art Gallery made a new free giveaway for the visitors to the music/bar show).
I was more than a little surprised to find out that this kit was remembered and mentioned in an essay about William S Burroughs. The excellent article was written by Ian MacFadyen's as a review of the 2012 "His name is Burroughs" exhibition at ZKM, in Karlsruhe, Germany.
In this essay he said...
“The Disembodied Art Gallery” would create their “Beatopoly” bag, “designed in close partnership with the ghost of Brion Gysin” — “A William Burroughs cut-up writing kit for all aspiring junkie novelists.” The kit consists of a folded half-A4 instruction card in a transparent bag with a plastic syringe.
This package came Absolutely Free and is now a highly desired collector’s item, fetching fabulous prices on the international quality lit market and art curator scenes (or maybe, hopefully, not).