Brion Gysin with Dreamachine at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1962. Photo: Harold Chapman/Image Works.
Today, the New Museum unveiled their exhibit “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine.” As a very capable and versatile artist, Gysin (1916 – 1986) is known for his work in a wide range of mediums: drawings, paintings, collages, books, film, sound, and poetry. He is also the inventor of the Cut-Up Method and the intriguing Dreamachine (1961/1979), and was one of the first artists to utilize computers. “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine” has approximately 300 works, and it is the first time Gysin’s visual arts have been presented in full in the United States.
Divided into sections based on the artistic stages of Gysin’s life, this exhibit contains pieces from 1936 to 1986, the year of his death. Much of Gysin’s work after 1959 was informed by his influential Cut-Up Method, which involved cutting up words and/or groups of words and rearranging them, creating a new form of expression. This method would come to inspire people like John Giorno, Brian Jones, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and Keith Harring.
Many of Gysin’s works are ink-on-paper, yet the content varies greatly: a 1936 piece is a more surrealist picture, a ca. 1962-66 piece is done on graph paper, and in 1975 Gysin was adding photo-collages to his ink-on-paper creations. By scratching or altering slides and adding ink, Gysin also created a variety of pieces that use his classic “mark-making” technique. As a man learned in Japanese and Arabic script, Gysin often employed variations of these languages’ calligraphy. More vivid creations are paintings made from typescript, newsprint, and gelatin silver prints. Archives are on display in the exhibit, as well, including old video interviews, letters to his long-time friend, William Burroughs, and a copy of The Third Mind, which is a manifesto about the Cut-Up Method by Gysin and Burroughs.
Highlights of the exhibit are some of the video and sound pieces Gysin created, such as “I Am That I Am” (1960, listen here) and “Pistol Poem” (1960, listen here), which is a recording of various gunshots spliced together. But particularly fascinating is Gysin’s Dreamachine, a spinning metal cylinder with slits that houses a light bulb. Its spinning is synchronized with the brain’s alpha waves, so when observed with closed eyes, it is intended to give the viewer dreamlike visions. According to exhibit curator Laura Hoptman, Gysin said that the Dreamachine “made paintings without the necessity of paint or canvas.”
“Brion Gysin: Dream Machine” will be on view until October 3rd. The New Museum will also host a series of events related to Gysin and the exhibit, such as a discussion by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on July 15 and a poetry marathon with John Giorno, Aaron Dillaway, Mónica de la Torre, and Kenneth Goldsmith on September 25. For more information, visit the New Museum website here.
[caption id="attachment_7595" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Brion Gysin, Dreamachine, 1961. Perforated metal, electronic motor, lamp."][/caption]
Brion Gysin, Self-Portrait Jumping, 1974. Gouache and photo-collage on colored paper.
Brion Gysin, Star of the Dreamachine, Unit VIII, 1961. Acrylic on canvas.
Brion Gysin, Untitled, 1960. Oil and ink on paper.
Untitled (Le Domaine Poétique). Paris, 1961. Performance documentation. Photo: Christian
Talliander.
Brion Gysin, Untitled, 1961. Acrylic on canvas.
William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, The Third Mind, 1965. Crayon, gelatin-silver prints,
letterpress, offset lithography, and typescript on graph paper.
William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, The Third Mind, 1965. Ink and typescript on paper.
