August 5-26. DARKNESS (chapter 1).

Darkness is my attempt at a linguistic excision of all things human from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a biocentric reworking of the original text. Over the course of the residency, the text of Heart of Darkness will be painted on the gallery wall. Volunteers will then erase the text based on each word’s relationship to imperialism and the so-called natural world. By linguistically and formally isolating and spotlighting “wilderness” on the landscape of the wall, volunteers will explore the possibilities of a biocentric narrativity while participating in the construction of “nature.”

Writer and visual artist Yedda Morrison was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her books include Girl Scout Nation (Displaced Press, 2008) and Crop (Kelsey Street Press, 2003). Darkness (A Biocentric Reading of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) is forthcoming from Make Now Press in Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in numerous anthologies and collections, most recently in The Book of Practical Pussies with artist Michelle Rollman, and Collective Task, edited by poet Robert Fitterman. Morrison has exhibited her visual work in the US and Canada, and is currently represented by Republic Gallery in Vancouver, BC. She lives in San Francisco. www.yeddamorrison.com