| WILLIAM ALLEN | |
| William Allen counter-balances American folk art means with the conceptual hypertext capabilities of the digital computer. As a metaphor for how we think, the interactive piece of writing associates in infinitesimal directions, makes connections (DEATH OF FREUD, DELPHIC ORACLE, DAY-OLD BREAD) -- no traditional reading from left to right or down to up around here... nor any cancer-causing blue light monitors. Here the narrative is exploded, on plywood or steel, and so too certain notions about what intellectual, psychological and metanymic course a play-poem-story should run. Poetry must be freed from its paper harnesses to become a part of daily contemplation -- words collapsed out of The Daily News to become a part of another, associative fort of meanings.
A poet and painter, W. Allen is has taught at New York University, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art, the School of Visual Arts in New York and Salve Regina University in Newport Currently he is working in tech support and instructional design for a software development corporation. He is the author of The Man on the Moon (NYU/Persea Presses, 1987) and Sevastopol: On Photographs on War (Xenos Books, 1997). Poems are forthcoming in Ploughshares, New eatters, The American Voice, and Another Chicago Magazine. His art and poetry can be seen online at www.ekphrases.com. |
Green Squid Ink, shown at Ronald Feldman Gallery, 1997 |