June 21, 2023

Gregory Betts

THE TOWERING TEXT U

The Towering Text U by Gregory Betts, shapes like letters arranged into the building blocks of towers

objkt.com | image/jpg

The Towering Text series explores the architecture of language, thinking about letters as the bedrock for the programming of the mind. On the other hand, letters are asemic objects, ink (or pixels) randomly arranged that become meaningful by convention and repetition. These towers nod to Babel as both the site of human ingenuity and incomprehension, as the hub of technology and linguistic divide. These works are AI generated images that have been doctored and collaged. The 20th letter in this series of 26 artworks exploring the architecture of language. The idiogram is the message.

from Rattle #80, Summer 2023
Tribute to NFT Poets

__________

Gregory Betts: “We haven’t done very well by digital art. The traditional gallery spaces will sometimes put out screens or even more ambitious attempts to replicate the analogue gallery experience for digital works—but they are always marked by the inadequacy. There has been no robust economy for digital art. I was drawn to the blockchain because it seems like we finally have a space for not just the storage of digital art but their circulation and purchase. Artists are getting paid, leading to an explosion of new works. A genre, multiple digital genres are emerging. Collectives are forming, boundaries are constantly being shattered, and all the other markers of a vibrant arts scene. The crypto-bro/pyramid scheme side of things is decidedly uninteresting to me, but the emergence of a genuine economy for digital art is significant and substantial. It is an interesting space to try to imagine, and doing so has opened up new aspects of visual poetry for me.”

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December 8, 2011

Gregory Betts

LINGERS TEAR GAS

Lingers tear gas
        the heart.
    Tear the gas heart.
Gas the heart.
        Tears linger.
    The gas lingers.
Tear.

        spring flowers wither

salty spray
        fogs
    a coast line
        of dissent

    as the wars lingers
eyes stares, empty
        as the birds vanish

from Rattle #35, Summer 2011
Tribute to Canadian Poets

__________

Gregory Betts: “I wrote this poem in response to the G20 summit in Toronto in July 2010. I was not able to participate in the protests because I was attending a baby shower for my soon-to-be-born son, Jasper John Betts. As I left the party, I had to drive past the protest zone, within scent of Spadina and Queen where the police were ‘kettling’ the protesters in the rain. Kettling involves an enormous number of troops boxing in a small group of protesters (a few hundred in this case). The Toronto kettled, many of whom were tourists, residents, and not protestors, were held in the rain for over four hours.”

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