I am a picture
taking a
picture of
a picture
waiting for
development
which is instant
these days
Betsy de Lotbiniere
London: Word-style.
American born Betsy de Lotbiniere is a poet, writer and curator living
in London. At home she is surrounded by
words and phrases which inspire her. Here are some of the stories, memories and
inspirations behind them. “I say a thousand words are better than any
picture.” She states. Her latest essays
can be read in, This Is Not A Book About Gavin Turk, edited by Rachel Newsome.
The Dining Room - Mantelpiece - I
am a picture poem postcard. This poem came to me one rainy night when I saw two
identical twins at a bus shelter. About 16 years old, these gangly boys were
wearing the same striped t-shirt and black jeans. One twin took out his
phone and started taking flash photographs of his twin, the other twin laughed
then took out his phone and was taking flash photographs of the other twin. As
they kept doing it, they became more and more hysterical in their laughter,
exchanging phones, snapping and trading back again and you had a feeling their
souls were merging into one. I wanted to
capture that feeling of disorientation, of loosing track of where one thing
ends and another begins. Also what it’s like to have grown up in an
analogue world, where you had to wait for image results, now living in a
digital world where everything is instant.”
The Bull. My sun sign is Taurus. My
friend, the brilliant artist, Victor Pimstein, who lives in Spain is also
Taurean. We get a lot of teasing for being bullish. But then
everyone goes quiet when you mention the top two Taureans: Shakespeare and the
Buddha. Victor, who lives in Barcelona, gave me the bull for Christmas
and is always really pleased to see it on display when he visits.
The Dining Room – The Boxes of Art
- No Place Like Home. “How soulful a place is can be measured by how many
objects made by the hands of its inhabitants surround you. These
beautiful boxes were made by my daughter Fausta. She is also a writer; she
produced her first play, Shallow Breath, this year.”
I was born, lucky me
In a land that I love
Though I am poor, I am free
When I grow I shall fight
For this land I shall die
Let her sun never set
The Dining Room – Framed Posters. “These posters were given away at
the Frieze Art Fair in London several years back. I’m ashamed to say I
can’t remember the artist’s name. I just adore the power of what may seem
like a very strong, positive, almost innocent message about national identity,
yet when applied to the Holy Land, in three different languages, the result is
deadly. Reminds me of the Bob Dylan's song, With God on Our Side.”
The Drawing Room – No Smoking in the
Courtroom sign. “The last place I lived in America was in an apartment on 7th
Street between Avenues A and B. At that time (early 80’s) the East
Village was a very rough and tumble place crammed with artists and small galleries.
You could get plenty of cocktails and some groceries but you couldn’t buy
anything useful, like a hammer or a pair of jeans. Each street had a
different drug associated with it. 7th was a cocaine street which meant
you had a lot of jumped up Puerto Ricans and Cubans cleaning their cars with
vigor and gusto to blaring Salsa music at 2 in the morning on a summer’s
night. I found this sign on a skip. It’s been making me laugh for
30 years.”
The Kitchen – Fridge Magnets. “I was
given a bunch of fridge magnets with Shakespearean insults. Keep Calm and
Write On, helps me when the anxiety of writing sends me to the fridge.
Reminds me to shut the door and go back to the computer.”
The Stairs. “I love sitting in
window seats and I wanted to encourage other people to do so too. So I wrote this
poem:
Moments
flying
faster than
thought-
Sit
-and catch
Now
I always meant to carpet those
stairs but I never have the money and anyway I’m sentimental about covering up
that memory.”
Ring Bell if you
feel Love
The Stairs: Landing – Blackboard. “There are two bells. One has
a clapper and the other one doesn’t. A kind of a Zen joke. Like the
one about the tree falling in the wood and if no one hears it, has the tree
really fallen? It’s always a nice thing when you’re downstairs sitting in the
drawing room and you hear the bell ring because it means one of your
friends is happy.”
The Bathroom. Let’s Get Lost
poster. “I was freshly married and we
were living in Rome when this Bruce Weber film was being shot and our
friend, the late, great, Kermit Smith was their distributor. Being huge
Chet Baker fans we were thrilled to be invited to the wrap party outside of
Rome which Bruce Weber shot and put in the end. Chet Baker died falling
out of a window in Amsterdam the year the film came out. He was only 59.”
The Bathroom. Mirror - Yankees
Ticket. “We were lucky enough to go to
one of the last games played in the old Shea Stadium in New York City. It
was one of those glorious summer days where everything hums with heat.
Jeter was playing and the game was good.”
Good Morning
Puma