The Booth

Poet No. 2

 

28 September – 14 December 2019

 

Matilda Fraser

Aotearoa New Zealand

Who needs poets? Everything we need has already been written – it’s a question of rearrangement.

Poet No. 2 is a Brutalist-style vending machine that explores the circulation of money and text. By inserting a NZ$1 coin into the machine, a unique 14 line sonnet on thermal receipt paper will be produced for the user to take away. Each sonnet printed is unique, formed of random lines of text from an archive of poetry from the last 60 years from published journals such as Landfall, Sport, Takehe, Turbine, and others.

Poet No. 2 addresses current modes of reading and text production such as the internet, which favours new connections, swift exchanges of information and collective authorship. For Fraser, Poet No. 2 considers the idea of a “national voice” as an alternate, and potentially dystopic, future of the creation of cultural capital.

Technical direction by Sam Lummis.

The Booth is open for proposals in an annual call. Read more about the space here.

Gus Fisher Gallery
74 Shortland Street
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Central 1010

Tuesday – Friday:
10am – 5pm
Saturdays:
10am – 4pm