The Prophet and the Fly

176pp
The contributions in the book alternated between texts by Catherine Lampert with illustrations of works by Alys, particularly paintings, performances and drawings and literary texts
(Plato, D.H. Lawrence and others). The book coincided with a travelling exhibition (Rome, Zurich, Madrid, Avignon) with the same name. Alys sees each new piece as part of a much more extended narrative about Latin America's relationship with the grand programmes or promises of development, but his means often require the suspension of meaning and the 'sensation of senselessness'. He works best when he has no witnesses, so my strategy of writing descriptions of pieces in the style of footnotes, encouraging him to insert and re-write sentences and inventing my own titles gave the images verbal tags. Our collaboration was an experiment in taking away the exclusivity of the artist and author, not least the tendency for a writer to revere while 'infantisizing' the artist.