Forward

Maggie Gray

Austin Wisniewski’s online exhibition is a multimedia experience that truly weaves itself through and around a number of feminist plays. His responses cover themes from Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman, Mud by María Irene Fornés, Untitled Feminist Show by Young Jean Lee, and You Got Older by Clare Barron. While diverse, these plays all center around the experiences of women, nonbinary, and trans people. However, themes like Barron’s work about dealing with a parents’ illness and the unhealthy relationship and family dynamics in Fornés’ work are not limited to people who were born and/or raised as girls. Austin mentions his identity as a straight cisgender man and how he cannot fully understand things like gender dysphoria, which is an important part of Archer’s journey in Sagittarius Ponderosa, but the art that he has found transcends (notice the word choice here) personal experience.

Each of Austin’s responses contain a video or song, a visual art piece, and a poem. While looking through his work, I tried listening to the song Pigs in Mud by Gertrude as I viewed the accompanying art piece and poem. It added to the claustrophobic feel of Mud, the desperation that Mae felt, and the end that she faced. This is beautifully summed up by the inclusion of Jennifer B. Thoreson’s Lamentations, which gives insight into Mae’s final thoughts as she was killed by someone who she was about to escape from.

Austin has carefully crafted experiences like these to complement each play. When simply reading a play, it is easy to lose the full experience as intended on stage. However, the richness of the media that Austin uses help to flesh out the text, providing a fuller experience and an interesting look into his mind as he reads. This exhibition asks to be looked over multiple times to really let the experiences sink in.

7PM to 7AM Night Sky Stars Timelapse

drewc

Sagittarius Ponderosa

Little Baby

Jennifer B. Thoreson

For my third and final medium I have decided to do a poem by Anne Boyer called “Not Writing”. The poem talks about how the author is “not” writing all these different things and to me it really speaks about how she is missing out on all these opportunities to do amazing things in the world. I feel that the poem could be taken very literal but also could be taken in the opposite manor. For this analysis I will be taking it in the literal sense. I feel that this poem really connects with how Archer takes the whole play to finally confront their family about what name they want to be called. I feel that this play has a lot of moments where characters put off doing things or waiting till the last minute. This is why I think this poem connects well with Sagittarius Ponderosa.

Not Writing

When I am not writing I am not writing a novel called 1994  about a young
woman  in  an  office park  in a  provincial town who has a job  cutting  and
pasting time. I am not writing a novel called Nero about the world's richest
art star in space.  I am not writing  a book  called Kansas City Spleen.  I am
not writing a sequel to Kansas City Spleen called Bitch's Maldoror. I am not
writing  a  book of  political  philosophy called Questions for Poets. I am not
writing a scandalous memoir.  I am not writing a pathetic memoir. I am not
writing  a  memoir  about  poetry  or  love.  I am not writing a memoir about
poverty,  debt  collection,  or  bankruptcy.  I   am  not  writing   about family
court.  I am not writing a memoir because memoirs are for property owners
and not  writing a memoir about  prohibitions of memoirs.
 
When  I am not writing a memoir  I am also not writing any kind of  poetry,
not  prose  poems  contemporary   or  otherwise,  not  poems made  of frag-
ments,  not tightened and  compressed poems, not loosened and  conversa-
tional poems, not conceptual  poems, not virtuosic poems employing many
different  types of  euphonious devices, not poems with epiphanies and not
poems  without,  not  documentary  poems about recent political moments,
not  poems  heavy with allusions to critical theory and popular song.
 
I am not writing "Leaving the Atocha Station" by Anne Boyer and certain-
ly  not  writing  "Nadja"  by  Anne Boyer though would like to write "Debt"
by  Anne Boyer  though  am  not  writing  also  "The  German Ideology" by
Anne  Boyer  and not writing a screenplay called "Sparticists."
 
I am not writing an account of myself more miserable than Rousseau.
I am not writing an account of myself more innocent than Blake.
 
I am not writing epic poetry although I like what Milton said about lyric
poets drinking wine while epic poets should drink water from a  wooden
bowl. I would like to drink wine from a wooden  bowl  or to drink  water
from an emptied bottle of wine.
 
I am not writing a book about shopping, which is a woman shopping.
I am not  writing  accounts  of  dreams,  not  my own or anyone else's.
I am not writing historical re-enactments of any durational literature.
 
I am not writing anything that anyone  has requested of me or is  waiting
on,  not  a  poetics  essay  or any other sort of essay, not a  roundtable re-
sponse, not interview responses, not writing prompts for younger writers,
not my thoughts about critical theory or popular songs.
 
I am not writing a new constitution for the republic of no history.
I am not writing a will or a medical report.
 
I am  not  writing  Facebook status updates. I am not writing thank-you
notes or apologies. I am not writing conference papers. I am not writing
book reviews. I am not writing blurbs.
 
I  am not writing  about contemporary  art. I am  not writing  accounts of
my travels.  I am  not writing  reviews for  The New Inquiry and not writ-
ing pieces for Triple Canopy and not writing anything for Fence. I am not
writing a  daily  accounting  of my reading, activities, and ideas.   I am not
writing  science  fiction  novels  about  the  problem  of  the idea of the au-
tonomy  of  art  and  science  fiction  novels about the problem of a society
with  only  one  law  which  is  consent.  I am  not  writing stories based on
 
Nathaniel Hawthorne's unwritten story ideas. I am not writing online dat-
ing profiles.  I am not writing anonymous communiqués.  I am not writing
textbooks.
 
I am not writing a history of these times or of past times or of any future
times and not even the history of these visions which are with me all day
and all of the night.

The first piece that I found was this nighttime timelapse of the night sky posted to YouTube by drewc.  I felt that this video really connected to this play in a couple of ways and ties into the generalized theme of the ponderosa forest and time. The video mentioned, to me, helps emphasize the topic we discussed in class about how things are still happening throughout the play and that things don’t just stop when we lose sight of them. I feel that this video helps drive that point home with the motion of the night sky connecting with these ideas that even when no one is watching, the night sky still moves. This was one of the first things to come to mind for me when thinking of art and other mediums that relate to Sagittarius Ponderosa.

The next medium is a photograph by Jennifer B. Thoreson titled "Little Baby”. It is a photograph of a man and a woman sitting on a bed holding each other with a baby in between them whilst their heads are covered in seed pods from a sycamore tree. This photograph speaks to me in a very interesting way in how it relates to Sagittarius Ponderosa. To me it speaks to the way Archer is loved by their family, but they just can’t seem to fully understand how to do it correctly and make Archer happy. To me it very much ties into the end of the play when Archer is yelling at Pops about taking on the new name of Archer, they finally want to be seen as Archer and it’s the first and only time that Archer makes an effort to correct pops and request that they call them Archer. It shows that Archer’s family wants to do what they can to support and be there for Archer, but they are unaware of what Archer is going through emotionally or the transition they are going through. I understand that someone like me, who is a cisgendered straight male, can’t comprehend what it is like for someone who is in the process of transitioning or has transitioned, but I feel that this image can relate to many people’s experiences transitioning.

MUD

Lamentations

Jennifer B. Thoreson

The last piece to my curatorial response is once again a poem. This poem is titled “Into the Mud” by Joyce Sidman. To me this poem really speaks to me about the ending of MUD and the potential future of Lloyd and Henry. The poem talks about how at the end of the day, after your last breath and last sight you enter into the mud. The glaring similarities to the title of the play and the general theme of the poem are fairly obvious. The overall poem talks about the end of your life and how after your last breath and your last sight you sink into the mud and I feel that this connects very well with the concept of MUD overall with Mae wanting to be better for herself and escape the situation that she’s stuck in but Lloyd ultimately ends her life and she is forever stuck in this awful place and that is where her life ends, sinking into the mud.

Into the Mud

Sun

slant low,

chill seeps into black

water. No more days of bugs

and basking. Last breath, last sight

of light and down I go, into the mud. Every

year, here, I sink and settle, shuttered like a

shed.  Inside, my eyes close, my heart slows

to its winter rhythm.  Goodbye, good-

bye! Remember the warmth. 

Remember the quickness.

Remember me.

Remember.

The first piece of art that I found was a song on YouTube titled “pigs in mud“ by the band Gertrude. After listening to this song, I found many connections from this song to MUD. First of all, the glaringly obvious connection to the title of the song. Mae mentions to Lloyd that when he dies he will die like a pig in the mud. The overall song also has a very choppy and disconnected and chaotic feel to it, this connects to the chaotic nature of the household with Mae, Lloyd, and Henry in it. Finally, in the song, there is a female singing about sleeping and dreaming which I feel connects very well with Mae’s dream of being better and going to school and eventually leaving Lloyd.

My next medium is a photograph from Jennifer B. Thoreson titled “Lamentations“. Jennifer was featured in my last curatorial response and I wanted to look at more of their artwork to see if I could find anymore pieces that I feel connect with MUD this time. This piece that I found heavily reminds me of Salisbury University’s past production of MUD which is what my mind instantly goes to when thinking about MUD. The flakey nature of the walls reminds me of the set that was done for our production of MUD. To me, this piece connects to MUD with the unstable nature of the furniture and the walls with the unstable nature of the house in the play. The man underneath the table, to me, connects with this idea that Lloyd relies on Mae to be there for him to help when he doesn’t know what to do. To me, this photo ultimately shows the relationship between Mae and Lloyd very well.

Untitled Feminist Show

Javier Rey

For my third and final piece of my third curatorial response, I will be discussing a poem titled The Affinity by Anna Wickham. This poem talks about the traditional feminist movement where women were not allowed to do anything without a man there to help them. This poem I feel provides a stark contrast to Untitled Feminist Show by literally showing that men are not needed in any regard for an entire performance. I feel that this poem helps bring to light the past and current struggles of women around the world in needing a man to basically do anything. This poem brings a harsh light to the beginnings of feminism and allows us to then expand into Untitled Feminist Show and allows us to leave the patriarchy behind for a moment and just exist in the present and experience ideas and feeling we have never felt before.

The Affinity

I have to thank God I'm a woman,
For in these ordered days a woman only
Is free to be very hungry, very lonely.
 
It is sad for Feminism, but still clear
That man, more often than woman, is pioneer.
If I would confide a new thought,
First to a man must it be brought.
 
Now, for our sins, it is my bitter fate
That such a man wills soon to be my mate,
And so of friendship is quick end:
When I have gained a love I lose a friend.
 
It is well within the order of things
That man should listen when his mate sings;
But the true male never yet walked
Who liked to listen when his mate talked.
 
I would be married to a full man,
As would all women since the world began;
But from a wealth of living I have proved
I must be silent, if I would be loved.
 
Now of my silence I have much wealth,
I have to do my thinking all by stealth.
My thoughts may never see the day;
My mind is like a catacomb where early Christians pray.
 
And of my silence I have much pain,
But of these pangs I have great gain;
For I must take to drugs or drink,
Or I must write the things I think.
 
If my sex would let me speak,
I would be very lazy and most weak;
I should speak only, and the things I spoke
Would fill the air awhile, and clear like smoke.
 
The things I think now I write down,
And some day I will show them to the Town.
When I am sad I make thought clear;
I can re-read it all next year.
 
I have to thank God I'm a woman,
For in these ordered days a woman only
Is free to be very hungry, very lonely.

The first piece I will be covering is a song from the internet famous abstract album Everywhere At The End Of Time by The Caretakers. The specific song I will be covering is B2-An autumnal equinox. The feeling of this piece I feel accentuates the abstract and abnormal nature of Untitled Feminist Show. The vinyl-esq quality gives it almost an eerie feel to the piece but I feel has lots of potential when combined with this play. While many scenes have explicit mentions of what music should be used behind the actors, I feel that Act 1 Scene 4 would take on a new light if paired with this song. It would bring a new level of absurdity and have the audience really try to understand what is truly happening.

The next piece we will look at for my curatorial response is a photograph by Javier Rey titled “Amorphism 77. Color abstract nude photograph.” When I found this piece, it spoke to me in a way very similar to how Untitled Feminist Show spoke to me when I did my first read through. The people in the photograph embracing each other and their identities hidden from view really speaks to its similarity to Untitled Feminist Show. Obviously, the connections with both the show and the photograph having nude people in them is very clear but also sets a very unique perspective at seeing both of these pieces. These pieces show us the audience that nudity and out bodies are something every person on earth has in common. The need to hide them and cover them due to shame and ridicule is very bizarre as we are the only animals on earth to do so.

You Got Older

Manna

Jennifer B. Thoreson

The first piece I will be introducing for this play is the song God Is Really Real by the pop-indie trio AJR. While working on homework or other projects I usually listen to music in the background and this song came up whilst doing research and I thought of the connection of God is Really Real and the main plotline of You Got Older, both are about their fathers being ill and passing away. One line that really sticks with me in this situation is “This kind of thing happens to other dads, it don’t happen to mine.” I’m very connected to this line because my own mother was diagnosed with cancer on her tongue my freshman year of college, she is doing just fine now, and its one of those things that you think you won’t have to deal with, and it just happens to other people and their families. I feel a very strong connection triangle to this show and this song because of my history of a parent having a life-threatening illness and you aren’t sure if they will make it through. Is a very eye-opening experience and makes a strong solid connection to this play.

The next piece we will look at is a poem by Joanna Klink titled Cancer (Pray for My Father). Very on the nose, I am aware, how could I not be with the last section. This poem talks about the author’s experience with their father who has cancer and his decline which is not to far from Mae’s father in You Got Older. It is a very scary and unnerving experience dealing with a loved one who has an illness as you are unsure if you should treat them more like a child and help them at every step or if you should treat them as you would. The world has changed and is still the same old same old simultaneously. That why this poem allows us to possibly view the situation of the fathers cancer from a different point of view.

Cancer (Prayer for My Father)

Far into fever, attached by cords
to the clicking machines, he sleeps
in a bed in a room not his own.
People enter and pass like ghost-blown
fogs. He is a slow walk
with limbs that recently gave way.
He is part of the blue snowfall.
He is very small, sitting on a curb
with skinny legs next to an elegant
aunt. He is not yet born.
He travels to meet the relatives
in Maulbronn and feels the lifting darkness
sunk in his chair at night, thinking.
He is intensely wrong, obstinate and generous,
the one who never seems to grieve,
sweaters and wine and violas locked in
air. You say: he too cannot be found again,
he too asks only for more aliveness
and time. The room is like every room
in that house sterile and never silent,
but sometimes birds drop into the air
above his sleep and coast for hours
on loose currents. There is no fire
but weathered blood and skin, a threaded
endurance, the peace
of placing your body in the hands
of those who might know,
the voices saying Have you eaten,
What could you have done.
The frost in your eyes is melting or stays
stitched. The fragile instruments of bodies
step into the room and out, the machine
counts two three four, and part of who you are
travels into the glass hallways that are filling
with warm light. He walks
only for so long. He approaches each sorrow
and lets it fall. He is unaccountably at ease
for just a single instant, he is
not an important name, he is the crucial man
inside the waning fever, the one who taught you
to care, he follows the deep tasks
even as he surrenders, one by one, his body's
dignities. He is the concert of bright strings,
the sudden gentleness of moss,
the tyrant opinion, a confusion of medications.
His mind is a room casting infinite love
from four walls. My beautiful father,
you carried me out into the day of my life
and let me stand on earth with affection
and force. Why should we fear our disappearance.

For my third and final medium for my fourth and final curatorial response we will see a return of our favorite photographer Jennifer B Thoreson with her photograph titled Manna from her Medic collection. It is of two people sitting in a room with medical equipment around them that seem to be connected in unusual ways. It is a surprise to no one that this is another connection to the fact that Mae’s father ends up in the hospital for cancer and passes away from his illness. It speaks to the scary nature of the procedures and treatment that cancer patients go through which are often very scary for the patient and their family as they can have very scary side effects that look like it is doing more harm to them than the cancer itself. This photograph does a good job of showing the odd and scary nature of the machinery and “treatment” patients go through.

Citations

Little Baby, From the series Testament, 16”x20”, Pigment Ink on Fiber Rag, 2014

Anne Boyer, "Not Writing" from Garments Against Women. Copyright © 2015 by Anne Boyer. 

"Lamentations, from the project Lamentations, 40x40", pigment ink on fiber rag, 2013" - from Jennifer Thoreson, Multidisciplinary Artist at https://www.jenniferthoreson.com/projects/lamentations-2013/lamentations

Copyright Credit: Joyce Sidman, "Into the Mud" from Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems. Copyright © 2005 by Joyce Sidman. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Source: Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems (Houghton Mifflin, 2005)

Kirby, Leyland James. B2 - An Autumnal Equinox. Everywhere at the End of Time (Stage 1), LEITER, 2023.

Teasdale, Sara. "The Affinity." Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

Rey, Javier. Amorphism 77. 2023, 1stDibs

AJR. God Is Really Real. Lyric video directed by AJR, edited by Austin Roa, YouTube, uploaded by AJR, 27 Oct. 2023.

Copyright Credit: Joanna Klink, "On Abiding" from The Nightfields. Copyright © 2020 by Joanna Klink.  Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House LLC.

Thoreson, Jennifer. Manna. Medic, Jennifer Thoreson, 2011.