Tear A Phrase and other poems

In Space: An Immersive ExhibitionHot Butter Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Does the mode in which an idea is transmitted change the idea itself?

Can moving outside of practice change the scope of the questions or indeed the question itself?

This idea pertains not only to the work presented, but how the work is presented.

By creating an immersive art experience, one where the lines between the spectator and the art is blurred; can we find a new way to engage with art?

Can the ideas behind the work, the intentions of the artist, be more clearly communicated by taking away the normal trappings of an exhibition.

The exhibition seeks to create an environment where the art exists around the spectator, and the act of viewing itself will change how the work is perceived.

Tear A PhraseImaad Majeed

For the purposes of “In Space”, I identified with journalism as the primary art form and practice, having worked in the media industry for three years, and departed from this towards performance poetry, by inviting participation of the crowd, engaging the viewer by allowing them the role of creating content.

For “Tear A Phrase”, second hand magazines were acquired, strung and hung by their spine against an allocated portion of the cardboard wall of the corridor constructed for the purposes of the exhibition. A prompt urged viewers to tear at the magazines, and glue sticks were available for them to paste the torn piece of paper onto the cardboard wall, participating in a crowd-collage.

In this way, a conversation was created and continued through the exhibition. I, then, used the words and images from the crowd-collage to craft a poem, and performed it towards the end of the exhibition. The performance poem was a reflection of this process of creating and continuing a conversation, reminiscent of a Dada-ist cut-up poem, only here, it is not a chance operation that holds back the “author’s will”, but the insistences of the crowd, though I would be the one that strung together the phrases, negotiatiating through the process.

artist’s statement

When in Rome, will the realEminem please stand upagain?Total Rs. 15Starting a basic discrepancy in our values.The tough guy has facedthat special someoneThe mess to reach the new future Verbatim, at 35,000 feetomnishe-real, it’s grande whatlife can be.Nothin’ but a G ThangSurvivors, why the hate? Learn from thegeneration of kidsBeat childhood cancer, on the way to Bostonwhere they hijacked two men thoughtto be Hani Hanjour (left) and MajedMoqed. They led unassuming lives,city planning into the depthsReadyof the world’s more impressiveNextThe possibilities are infinite

The War On Privacy

DelugeThe Bush team signals that its strong dollIts military policy, ideological, and lawand order on your face.POW!Nothing is as contagious. Pow!A special relationshipThought she was reliving historyMightyAfghanistanDoesn’t look likean MP3 player, does it?Eye in the skyFirst personA tough fightHistory is burdenedEuropeThe gene rushGerman law is betterthan its reputation, andso are the unionsPerspectivesJesus, what the hell was that?

Insect Scott WaddleRammed Japanese shipAccording to one of the sub’s passengers:I was blindsided by thisPowerRunning all nightTimeThe real price$100 RumTimeIt’s a mad, mad worldPicking regional leadersAll the President’s men will seek a shorter“transitional” figureCultureThe mad bomberthe government’s failureto our readersA bloody day in paradiseIslands of lifeTargetOne familyGet BACCMake your own road

The forbidden TongPleasure ExplosionReady for TakeoffLet the Games beginSavour the freshnesscolour my money greenCrouching TigerJapan RobotWar Without EndCreatesIcebergA call to armsA class system of catastropheTsunamitranscends timeAt one pointCoolAsia’s day ofDeathAmerica’s Soft MiddleBuilding a Ringof friends

the gapsCutting-edge cooldaytrippera guide to someWhen advertising does it job,millions of peopleburn $1 billsOsama binTallyinga region in shockin search of BuddhaAn Asian RenaissanceThe Westjuggling two worldsRussian Blingshold french friesBEASTBOOMNow’s a great time to Roar into SingaporeBEASTBOOMwho will you be in the next

BEASTBOOMmore power to youINTO FOCUI confess,I want LatinCultureThe Fake Slim Shadyliving in the skyPutin has a habitof handpicking loyal alliesbringing together scientistsfrom rich and poor countriesAll The President’s Men,There’s a world of trouble out therePowerThe best globalbreakfast adviseralways homeI can dreamLETHALBin LadenHeadless Suburban DreamFUEL

Shakespearein a Speedoreading Dan Brown’sDa Vinci Codethe true, peacefulface of Isla-ARTSLet’s get realabout Iraquncertain futureclose quarterssteel behind the smileTIMENature in yourRulingNumbersArmed menAl-Yenbicycle pumpyellow balloonwho gets the gold,Christine Lagarde?A true believerto end a genocide

debatein defence ofheadless suburban dreamdrop all but the militaryspacebedand the second rate thugtranscends timePlaying fairwith copyrightthe broken boneDAMAGEan erotic encounterWe’ll havefun, fun, funright?Shehan Karunathilakastraddles thebeautifulDAMAGE.

other poems

other poems

love (a reproduction)

Absence is to lovea comfort in the strength of lovea girl likes to be crossed in love a littleAlcohol is like lovealike are the groans of love to … dyingAll mankind love a loverall’s fair in love and warall the world and love were youngAnd love to all menAn ounce of loveashamed of having been in love

As honour, love, obedienceBecause women can do nothing except lovebrief is life but love is longBut Love has pitched his mansionChristianity has done a great deal for loveCome live with me, and be my lovecorner in the thing I lovecourage to love … courage to sufferDear Roger Fry whom I love as a manDeep as first loveDo not love your neighbour as yourselfdon’t believe in … true love untilDrinking … and making loveEngland! … What love I bore to theeEvery little girl knows about lovefolly …. love did make thee run intoFor where there is love of man, there is also love of the art

God is lovegreat love hath no manHe fell in love with himselfhelp … of the woman I lovehe told men to love their neighbourhow did you love my picturehow fair … art thou, O love, for delightshusbands, love your wivesI do not love theeI do not love thee, Doctor Fellif men and women marry those whom they do not love

If music be the food of loveI hate and loveI love or I hateI’m tired of LoveIn love … the amateur statusIn Switzerland they had brotherly loveI rather suspect her of being in loveI shall but love thee better after death

Is thy love a plant Of such weak fibreI think my love as rareit jumps from admiration to loveI understand only because I love

I want to love first, and live incidentallylabour of lovelaw of nature which love alone can alterlet brotherly love continueLet’s Fall in Lovelet us prove … the sports of lovelet us too give in to Lovelightly turns to thoughts of lovelive with me, and be my lovelonging for lovelove - all the wretched cant of itLove and all his pleasureslove and marriagelove and murder will outlove … intercourse between tyrants and slaveslove a place the less for having sufferedLove bade me welcomeLove built on beautyLove ceases to be a pleasureLove conquers allLove conquers all thingslove dwells in gorgeous palacesLove fledlove flies out of the windowlove God, and hateth his brother

love … has one arch-enemyLove? I make it constantly butlove in a golden bowlLove in a hutLove is a boyLove is a sicknessLove is blindlove is blind and lovers cannot seeLove is like the measlesLove is moral even without … marriageLove is my religionLove is not love Which altersLove is the wisdom of the foolLove laughs at locksmithslove … looks more like hatredLove looks not with the eyesLove makes the worldLove means never having to sayLove means the pre-cognitive flowLove me, love my dogLove of honourlove of justice in most menlove of liberty is the love of otherslove of money is the root of all evillove robs those who have it of their witLove seeketh not itself to pleaseLove seeketh only Self to please

Love’s like the measlesLove sought is goodLove’s pleasure lasts but a momentlove that loves a scarlet coatLove … the gift of oneselfLove, the human form divinelove the lord thy God with all thy heartlove thy neighbour as thyselflove … was not as love is nowadayslove we swore … seems deceitLove will find a waylove your enemiesLove your neighbourmake us love your goodly giftsMaking love is the sovereign remedy for anguishMany a man has fallen in love with a girlMen love in hasteMy love and I would lieMy Love in her attire doth show her witMy love is like a red red roseMy love she’s but a lassie yetMy true love sent to meNo love like the first loveno man dies for love, but on the stageNuptial love maketh mankindoffice and affairs of loveO Lord, to what a state … those who love Thee

One can love … vulgarityOne can’t live on love aloneOne must keep love affairs quietonly love sprung from my only hateO tell me the truth about loveOur love of what is beautiful does notperfect love casteth out fearpoets without lovereal truth about his or her love affairsReligion is loveSaying ‘Farewell, blighted love’She makes love just like a womanShe never told her loveSociety, friendship, and loveSuch ever was love’s waytemperate in love and wineThe boy I love is up in the gallerythe fool of loveThe King of love my Shepherd isThe love of life is necessary tothe Love that dare not speak its nameThere can be no peace of mind in lovethese Christians love one anotherThose have most power to hurt us that we love

Though loves be lost love shall notThy friends are exultations, agonies, And lovetime to love, and a time to hate’Tis said that some have died for loveTo be wise and loveTo business that we love we rise betime To live with thee, and be thy loveto love and to cherishTo love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romanceTrue love’s the gift which God has givenTry thinking of lovevanity and love … universal characteristicsviolence masquerading as loveWar is like lovewhat a mischievous devil Love isWhat are your views on loveWhat is commonly called loveWhat is love? ’Tis not hereafterWhen a man is in love he endures morewhen love is grown To ripenesswhen one … it is very different to love Godwhere the course of true love may be expected to run smoothwhom to look at was to loveWilt thou love her, comfort her

with a love like that you know you should be gladwith love from me to youWithout love you will be merely skilfulworms have eaten them, but not for lovewritten for the love of Manyet I love her till I dieyour love but not your thoughts

it’s a monster slang, it’s nomadicthey know how to practice pragmaticswolves will have to be purged(only six of which get eaten)the parents may have made loveto get away and save their packintently watch, the dreaming childin the act of making loveits ocher color and its blazingviolent, almost vertiginous, happinessfundamentally a crowdof pores, or blackheads, babies, and rodsor part of a house, any number of thingswithout organs composes an organismhopping on the beacha desert with tribes inhabiting itlike a speed or a temperaturelibidinal “currents” that coexisttoward and away from zeropocked with pustules and little holesbecoming-wolf, becoming-inhuman: a tale told by an overconscious idiotof the pack or the bandand then, immediately afterwardshe will again and again find himselfthe very particular ambitionswhere else but in wide expansesIn Kafka, Wolf-Man, Oedipus,In Russia, Proust, Goats,zoology.

<insert title>

outside of the ecstaticserotonin depleting droneof assembly line rhythmand predictable rhymewithin the confinesof a mind’s realityan imagined exilediasporic voices in your headconvince youthat it’s futileto expect a resolutionderivative of a cut and paste constitutionwhile playdough pastiche poetssubscribe to YouTube sidebar’srevelation of preacher’s trutha Teacher’s fountain of youthtwo parts whisky and one part liewith a dash of lime and a mouthful of saltchoking on the muddied asphaltof dispersed monsoon showerspatterns broken and reimaginedby the trade winds of globalisation

Self Portrait

today’s fleeting sensationa rockstar poet with a chip on the shouldera drive-thru vivisection of a country landscapeplantation after plantation, permacultureor permanent evasion of land battleslegally stymied, travelling at the speed of tuktook a long hard look and the shutter snappedshut the revolving door on the last prophetto step foot out of his own mindto find that redemption is only as good as a tunesung out of time, off pitch, out of contextwith a side-helping of thc product placementand a dope fiend’s guide to the universemindfulness unravelled in an android appwhile Buddha sits half nakedundressed by the wardrobe changesof an understudy too eager to bethe next maitreya, touting feminismwith a hardback Fountainheadspouting every ism through a prismreminiscent of the Dark Side of the Moondropping every pop culture referencein favour of colloquialisms

sporting kitsch attirebroken Englishand rubber slippersstolen from a public congregationan ethnoreligious demarcationof skin colour, piety and petty theftof identity, masking layers on photoshopto hide the blemishes of Fair & Lovelyside effects, White Chocolate puffy cheeksand saris that are a bitch to undress