From the Archive: Daniel Erban (CAROUSEL 21)

From the Archive: Daniel Erban (CAROUSEL 21)

Lens Irritant — DANIEL ERBAN Portfolio Montréal based artist Daniel Erban (1951-2017) creates printed images and large drawings that, in his own words, “scratch at the viewer’s retina and bleed into their conscience”. He has spent the better part of three decades hell-bent on exploring society’s dark impulses through the production of thousands of loosely figurative, near-profane images. Unapologetically provocative, Erban sees the role of the artist in contemporary culture as a “disturber of social

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From the Archive: Mono Brown (CAROUSEL 21)

From the Archive: Mono Brown (CAROUSEL 21)

MONO BROWN Creak Make my bed and lie in it, bone-pile,you get to be the blanket lumps. Half a year or so ago your weightwould make this mattress creak, creak. Stay a bit and let me hear your teethtap dance, bone-pile. Knead an everlastingmeal from these pale sheets of flesh. My bathroom light stays on when you comeback to me in dreams that hold your jointstogether for the first time since they brokeand I see

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From the Archive: Antranik Tchalekian (CAROUSEL 21)

From the Archive: Antranik Tchalekian (CAROUSEL 21)

ANTRANIK TCHALEKIAN Dream of Flying lush and raw, the night descends on you so quiet, hands raisedto catch any stray signals thrown down from spacetrying to chart systems,maps, divine movements I remember the momentwhen all the words left my headpoured out and were buried in mudas I ran over the soaked earth,was taken, joined the air and soaredthe moment time cleaved us in half a blackbird now,I spend days flying and nights trying to reach

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From the Archive: Moez Surani (CAROUSEL 20)

From the Archive: Moez Surani (CAROUSEL 20)

MOEZ SURANI Guy de Maupassant “What, then, did Flaubert understand by beauty, in the art he perused with so much fervour, with so much self-command? Let us hear a sympathetic commentator.” — Walter Pater I become Boswell around him. I see him Sundayswhen bark closes his face. He is an unhappy planet disregard thegarrulity of his letters he is somethingfrom Ovid becoming woman or lionon whim becoming delusionor child as the bark slams over his stomachand

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From the Archive: Phil Caron (CAROUSEL 20)

From the Archive: Phil Caron (CAROUSEL 20)

PHIL CARON The You from Here Last night I watched a house burn down. And when it was done only a silhouette remained, lit from inside by a heart of crusted embers. I thought about you. Afterwards, in my hotel room, I noticed the scent of smoke on my jacket. You used to call that lumberjack perfume. More thoughts of you.       I ordered food: Thai noodles and a ginger ale. I found a hair clinging

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From the Archive: Jen Currin (CAROUSEL 20)

From the Archive: Jen Currin (CAROUSEL 20)

JEN CURRIN A Bat Unveiled In the museum of land mines,my acquaintance fans her wings.Outside the sparrows catch fire.A tree falls to its knees.I become the sudden murderer,unable to recognize the radishesof my hands. The dictionary shudders. Again I cannot bealone. What is left of beautyI sop up with a napkin, believingit a limited supply. My only reading materialgives in to the blaze. And now I burn the legsof the chair, lest they touchthe ground.

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From the Archive: Ed Pien (CAROUSEL 19)

From the Archive: Ed Pien (CAROUSEL 19)

Against Entropy — ED PIEN Portfolio There is something instinctual about visiting the well of inspiration. Thirst is a need, and as a need, it cries out to be satiated. Who amongst us can resist the invisible call of our base drives? Pretend or distract, need still eventually finds a way to be served. Need brings out the animal, puts the human in his place. When animal logic takes over, every gesture moves towards potential

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From the Archive: Michael Aird (CAROUSEL 19)

From the Archive: Michael Aird (CAROUSEL 19)

MICHAEL AIRD For Seamus stem entrancemeshed to the cold hollowwhere your words vicareda clock heatawhile, saturated forward like I tinkered victim mechanicsthe resemblance of kept recordsbricks through glass paneimprints soft tissue so much knotted truthhoisted as black flagsabove the antechamber, antiravelour impulse bundle exhaledwithout bloodshed silence hardens over unlooked forthe proof drive stood hinge to our previous alsoits graft welcome waitsto wave us in For Seamusappeared in CAROUSEL 19 (2006) — buy it here

From the Archive: Robin Patterson (CAROUSEL 19)

From the Archive: Robin Patterson (CAROUSEL 19)

ROBIN PATTERSON The Woods Behind my Father’s House I have been lost in these woods before.I have seen this tree, scarred and twisted,and not recognized it.My feet have paced this unfamiliar pathtripping over roots that were never there. The spaces between the trees are dark and forbidding.The ferns at my feet fill the unfamiliar forest floorand grow as high as my waist,hiding a whole other world under their fronds.I keep my hands close to my

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From the Archive: Emily Schultz (CAROUSEL 19)

From the Archive: Emily Schultz (CAROUSEL 19)

EMILY SCHULTZ Level 2: Frogger (excerpt from Joyland) Illustration by NATE POWELL PLAYER 1 After Joyland closed, the youth of South Wakefield had nothing to do but concoct ways to kill each other.       Tammy sent home long ago, J.P. and Chris sprawled on the curb opposite the arcade, leaning back on their hands, drinking grape pop. Over the course of the night, the misplaced patch of boys grew in the stretch of cement in front

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From the Archive: Anne Baldo (CAROUSEL 18)

From the Archive: Anne Baldo (CAROUSEL 18)

ANNE BALDO Like Money Everyone Will Use You & It Won’t Even Matter Stuck on the tongue,sour,like the pillyou cannot swallow your wordsare meaningless asfragmented hieroglyphicsyou talk in the calligraphyof valentines — beautiful but wasted. So don’t apologizefor your absenceas you walk awaydon’t say remembering people is so hard. Reduce usto a mere glitch of the heart. I will wait for youbut in the arms of other men. Like Money Everyone Will Use You …appeared

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From the Archive: Renée Hartleib (CAROUSEL 18)

From the Archive: Renée Hartleib (CAROUSEL 18)

RENÉE HARTLEIB Cat and Mouse Brenda imagined awful things. Chronically predisposed to what a friend called “catastrophizing,” she often awoke in the middle of the night with her heart racing, sure that she had heard a noise, sure that someone had broken into the house to rape and kill her. She was suspicious of wrong numbers. She checked for people following her. She startled easily.       Brenda was, however, shocked the day she came home from

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