¡ ¡ ¡ Bruce Conner ! ! !  

 

 ¡ ¡ ¡ Bruce Conner ! ! ! 

¡ ¡ ¡ Bruce Conner ! ! !  

I was home in the late afternoon with the sunlight coming through the window in my room.  I was lying on the rug working on my homework.  I decided to rest and I laid my head on the floor.  The light started to change and became very bright. . . . Shapes and sizes were changing.  It seemed like they weren’t inanimate.  They were living things.  I was part of them, and I was moving into them.  I moved into a space that was incomprehensible to me. . . . I went through things, and places, and spaces, and creatures.  I became them, and I came back to myself. . . . I went through all these changes until I was so old.  I was so wrinkly.  My bones were creaking and likely to break. . . . Then I began to realize that I was on the floor.  I was back. . . . I became myself again, after eons of time. . . . It was the same room.  Only 15 minutes had passed.

 ¡ ¡ ¡ Bruce Conner ! ! !  

 ¡ ¡ ¡ Bruce Conner ! ! ! 

Yes, the Glade of Theoric Ornithic Hermetica today celebrates Bruce Conner, on the anniversary of his birth – November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.  Conner died in San Francisco in 2008, but his work lives on.

The two texts seen above are excerpts from interviews of or talks by Conner in which he recounts a pivotal childhood experience.  The version at the head of this post was printed in 2011 by Jon Beacham at The Brother in Elysium, for the cover of a program distributed at a screening of Conner’s films.   The second version was printed in the Walker Art Center’s catalog for the 2000 BC exhibition.  A third version of this wondrous story told by Conner can be read by clicking here.

The first art work seen above, titled ANGEL, is one of a series of life-size photograms Conner made in collaboration with photographer Edmund Shea in 1975.  In these self-portraits, Conner’s body appears made of light. 

There then follows a 1990 collage of wood engraving images by Conner, titled PSYCHEDELICATESSEN OWNER.  What’ll you have, my friend?

The final work pictured here, as indicated by the text printed over the bottom of the image, is HANDPRINT, made by Conner with his blood in 1965.

 ¡ ¡ ¡ Bruce Conner ! ! ! 

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