" I is another"
Rose Wood, stage artist and calligrapher, re-enacts 19th century poet Arthur Rimbaud's "I is another" within the nighttime streets of New York City,
Some nights Rose is a blonde, some nights otherwise.
New Languages
Rose Wood, selected and created stencils from quotes of Rimbaud's poems and letters,
and pasted them on boarded up storefronts and construction sites fences, for this story of identity and becoming.
“...as ... ..eator .. ..ery feast, ..... .riumph, ...ry .....
...... to ...ent ... .lowers, ... planets, ... flesh, ... ....uages. I th..... I had ........ super....... ......”
(from Rimbaud’s “A Season in Hell”)
Rose Wood had prepared various stage props featuring Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry,
one of which was a long scroll, which Rose wrapped around her face,
thus joining the body to the verb.
Rose created a large open-paged poetry book with Rimbaud's "Vowels" poem
black A, white E, red I, blue O, green U,
On our first night out, at about 3 a.m. on Bond st, between Lafayette and the Bowery,
Rose was working on the 4th stenciling of the night...
“Once if my memory serves me well, my life...”
(from Rimbaud’s “A Season in Hell”)
...when a police car arrives, Rose and the police speak for a few minutes and to my surprise, as they drive away,
Rose returns to the stencil to finish it. I ask ‘What happened ?’, Rose tells me that she explained to the police that is was not graffiti but poetry,
to which the woman cop in the car replied ‘That is rather nice’
"I is another"
West Chelsea, 11th Avenue at 21st street, 0;44 a.m.
On a snowy, but relatively warm night
Stencilling
"eye is another"
“Our bones have put on new flesh for love"
(from Rimbaud’s “Illuminations”)
"I is another"
(from Rimbaud’s “Letter of a Visionary”)
“So what if a piece of wood discovers it’s a violin”
(from Rimbaud’s letter to his teacher, May 13th, 1871)
Rose with a purple notebook
"I is another"
On another night, Rose Wood carrying a lantern, had stenciled Arthur Rimbaud’s quote on her clothing and a wall,
adding to it 2 arrows pointing in opposite directions, one arrow towards her as a target and one from her, as a catapult,
Hard Hat Area
(Rose stenciling an “I”)
“I”
multiple
Rose 19
(with 2 silver necklaces)
(..... use walkway)
Rose under the street lights and a full moon
"I is an other"
Rose Wood carrying a large sheet of particle board, at 10th avenue and 13th street, NYC. 1: 25 a.m.