How I came to write some of my poemes
My poemes are excavated from the substrata of language. They are the primary research component of an ongoing investigation into the relations between language, bodies and subjectivity. Though some are dug up whole, most are found in fragments then pieced together to construct larger poetic objects. The final phase consists of interpreting the works so as to determine their meaning. Periodic reports summarize findings. The first of these are +|’me’S-pace, mUtter-bAbel, and The Book of ME.
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Reviews of Poemes
“The Best of 2020,” Heriberto Yépez, in Mileno (translation):
A decade has gone by. The question is: in 2020, who will be viewed as the most forward-thinking? Not even in the United States do they know the answer yet. But I will tell you: Christine Wertheim. She lives in Los Angeles. She has one book: +|‘me’S-pace (2007). She fusions concretism and psychohistory. It would seem like feminism or conceptualism, but it surpasses such etiquettes. Her work is not literary or aesthetic; she utilizes poetic resources, but what she does is create an accidental science, an erratic. According to her theory – named litteral poetics – the English language possesses clues – like other languages – that describe (between the lines) the crypto-social structure…She argues that Western literature is One’s song that originates from the mother’s pee-stream. Hers is a pataphysic of psychoanalysis. Wertheim challenges, then, dogmas shared by mainstream literature and American experimental writing. She does not believe in the arbitrary character of the sign – so long, semiotics and (post)structuralism – and she asks for a (nefarious) return of psychoanalysis (meaning “son-analysis”), which has been practically expelled today due to romantic-expressionistic resonances, after the Death of the Author and deconstruction. She analyzes Joyce and Beckett in an intrepid manner, offering evidence of how the English language is originated when the masculine figure – son(g) – wishes to separate himself from the “mother,” – which is to say, from the “M-(any)-Others.” To be a Hero: chew Eros.
A text is composed of all the relations between the encrypted characters. And the characters and verbs are spelled in the words; they have to be found. Those verbo-voco-visual pieces dis-cover that the Western writer is not a parricide – as we thought – but the ruse of a matricide martyr. Just imagine that the visual poetry of Cabrera Infante would look to prove (systematically and seriously) that Fidel castrated every Cuban. And imagine Derrida playing with a Ouija board until discovering that he’s Freud’s mother’s medium. This vacant-vociferation is what Wertheim is exploring in the English language today. She is the first writing of the new millennium.
- Of poeme – “th|‘Speak of the sta|res” by Simon DeDeo
- Jacket 2 – “U+F+O+L+A+N+G+U+A+G+E” by Amy Catanzano
- Boston Review – “Vulnerable Rumbles: At Red Rover”
- Lark Readings at Studio Grand
- Southerly Journal – “&Now: Blast Radius – writing and the other arts”
Poemes (online)
- “th|‘Speak of the sta|res” in La Petite Zine, #16
- “Prelude: A Memorial” in Tarpaulin Sky
- “Finnegan’s Wanke” in Drunken Boat
- Sound Poetry Scores in Aslongasittakes
- “Mouth Removed” in Sidebrow
- “Letter to an Unremembered Companion” in Cabinet Issue 36, Friendship, Winter 2009-10
Poemes (print)
- “after-birth”, in P-Queue, University of Buffalo
- Two Works in Mandorla Issue 15
- “Madonnas and Child” in VLAK Magazine 1.1, Ed. Louis Armand, Ted Berrigan, Carol Watts
- “HaHa” & Other poems in Gerry Mulligan: Number Two, ed. Benjamin Tripp
- “Watt” in Patacritical Interogationte Techniques Anthology, Vol. 3.
- “Pamela Abers” in [out of nothing] #0, theoretical perspectives on the substance preceding [nothing]
- “ ‘S-Mouthering” in 1111
- “Mother’s Suite” in Feminaissance (Les Figues Press)
- “Mouth Poems” in Veer
- “Play” in Forest, Machine Gallery
- “Re-Cognition of +|’Me: Memorial” in Tarpaulin Sky
- “The Body’Swounds,” Mel’s Hole, exhib cat., ed. Doug Harvey
- “Wa++ |’s +|’me?” and others in The /n/oulipean Analects (Les Figues Press)
- “Poems for +|’me’S-pace,” Five Finger Review
Poetry Anthologized
- The &Now Awards 3: The Best Innovative Writing, ed. Megan Milks, &Now Books 2014
- TrenchArt Monographs: hurry up please its time, eds. Teresa Carmody, Vanessa Place (Les Figues Press, 2015)
- [out of nothing] #0: theoretical perspectives on the substance preceding [nothing], ed. [out of nothing], October 2012
- The L.A. Telephone Book Vol. 1, 2011-2012
- “4 Conception Poemes” in I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women, eds. Vanessa Place, Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody (Les Figues Press, 2012)
- “Finnegans Wanke” in Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing, ed. K.Goldsmith and C. Dworkin
- “+|’me’S-pace,” excerpt in & Now Anthology, ed. Davis Scheiderman, 2009
Performances/Readings
2015
- Organizer and Curator of &Now Blast Radius
with Jen Hofer, Douglas Kearney, Janet Sarbanes, Mady Schutzman, Matias Viegener - Step & Repeat, MOCA, LA
- Domain 22, LA
- &Now Blast Radius, CalArts
- “Exit 43”, voice performance
- “Rules of the Cosmos”, &Now Blast Radius, collective performa
2014
- “swOunds and hOwles,” Department for Theory and History of Literature, Sofia University,
- “swOunds, hOwles and other nO|ses,” Automata, 2 theatrical performances Los Angeles.
- Poetics Research Bureau, LA.
- Downtown Literary Alchemy Laboratory, Writ Large Press, Cartel, LA.
- Los Angeles Poets Symposium, University of California Los Angeles.
- Writing Program, New York University, Abu Dhabi
- Lark Reading Series, San Francisco.
- Chaos Reigns – Main Stage, Annual Chinatown Performance Festival, LA.
2013
- Red Rover Reading, Annual Conference of the Modern Language Association, Chicago
- &Now Literary Festival, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Les Figues Reading, with Teresa Carmody, Dodie Bellamy, Melissa Buzzeo, Jennifer Calkins, Lily Hoang, Jen Hofer, Michael du Plessis, Frances Richard, Matias Viegener
- Writing Through: The Mother-Daughter Relation, with Elizabeth Colen, Kenyatta Hinkle, Janice Lee
- “Auro-bioghraphical SwOunds,” MFA Writing Program, University of California, San Diego.
- “mOUth,” Tribute to Valie Export, Counterpath, Denver
2012
- &Now Literary Festival, The Sorbonne, Paris
- Automata – with Teresa Carmody, Jen Hofer, Vanessa Place, Frances Richard, Giovanni Singleton
2011
- “Ni Una Mas,” Not Content, art-text project and performance, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA
- Artist in Residence – September, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA
- “Pipeline Performances” Chora Artists’ Summer Residency, Ulan Baator, Moscow, St Petersburg,
- Conceptual Writing Reading, Assocaited Writing Programs Annual Conference,
- Beyond Baroque, LA.
2010
- Unnamable Books, NY.
- Cabinet Space, NY.
- Proteus Gowanus, NY.
- Untitled, performance for writing conference, LA.
- Soundeye Poetry Festival, Cork.
- Sonic Vigil, music and poetry festival Cork.
- Couscous, annual poetry marathon curated by Maired Byrne, Cork.
- Birkbeck College, London.
- Forest Series, Machine Project, LA.
2009
- “…on a whirling vortex wrought,” puppet play, written and performed by C. Wertheim
- Mercantile Library, NY.
- Metabolic Studio, LA.
- Eaglerock Arts Center, LA.
- Eaglerock Arts Festival, LA.
- West Hollywood Festival of Books,
- California College of the Arts, San Francisco, LA.
- Museum of Jurassic Technology, LA.
Visual and Other Poetry
the primeval cry: quuuuuoooiiiiiii????!!!!!
pr|ck-cUnt bOOk – no.1 + 2 the stOry of the e|e – no.1
“nO|se,” pub. The Psychoanlaytic Notebooks”
poeme 1
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
the primeval cry:
quoi?
quoi quoi quoi quoi quoi quoi quaaaaaa!
What?
ooooh waaaaaaa ooooooh waaaaaaaa
waaaaa waaaaa waaa
OOu | OOu | OOu | OOu |
OOu | OOu | OOu | OOu |
O’ quOi?
O’ quOi?
O’ quOi? O’ quOi?
quOi quOi
quOi quOi
quOi quOi
quack!
ooooooooO O|| OO |
| O | O O | O oh!
quOi ?
quOi
quOi-quOi
quOi quOi
quOick
quick
quack!
QUOI?
quOqu quOqu quOqu quOqu
quOqu quOqu
Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
WHAT? watt
watt watt
watt watt
Oooooooowwwwooooooooo
wwwwww-ott?
watt O, watt
O watt’s wot?
watt’s wot?
+ why O why”
O y O y O y O whhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy ?
| O | O | O | quack!
| quack! | QuO!
| Quick! | Qua!
|| OO | | O
O || || OyO
Oy O y Oy whhhhhyyyyyy?
why why why why why why
yyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyoooooooo!
oh whyyyyy?
………………………………………………………………………..
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
sh|t-mOuth: mm mm mm mm
Me mouth |+’s full
|+’s full |+’s full
|+’s full of me e|es
e|e’s full of the mouth
e|e’s full of the-m-Outhers
e|e’s full
full full
mmmm mmm mmm mmmmm
e|e’s full of the-mmmmmm
e|e’s full of the mouth
e|e’s full of the-m-Outhers
the mmmmmm- m-Others
the Mothers themOUthers Out-there
Outthhhers
Out here Out there
Out here!
mmmOUTtth mmmOUTtth mmmOUTtth
OUT!
E|e’s Out!
E|e’shout
E|e’shit
E|e shit
E|e’shut
Shit |t Out
‘S hit!
Mmm mmm mm
me|e MOUTHhhhhh!
me|e MOUTHhhhhh!
Get them OUT of
me|e MOUTHhhhhh!
mmmmmmmm