Huge thanks to Esther Anatolitis, whose speech from this week’s Public. Open. Space. launch in Naarm/Melbourne has now been published by ArtsHub.
‘Kate Larsen’s work radically rehumanises the institutions that shape our lives,’ Anatolitis writes. ‘Whether as a poet or a strategist, a collaborator or a leader, Larsen looks around at her working context and asks: what happens here? How are people welcomed here? How do we make decisions together here? And, most crucially, most beautifully: how is our humanity enriched here?’
‘… Larsen reminds us that the online world is not a smooth experience of endless flow. Her ‘tinylittlepoems’ are the great command-option-escape/control-alt-delete of our scrolldoms: we pause all processes, reflect and reimagine where we can put our energies right now. Error messages as visual poems; fake news in real tweets; security and privacy and mediated intimacies.’
‘… In our new scroll-by ethics, we’re never just a bystander, and we can’t conscionably claim innocence. The standard we scroll past can so easily become the standard we accept – so unflinchingly that we’re inured to the inhumanity we witness. That’s not who we are. Through poetry, we stop and see these words anew.’
‘Larsen’s work rehumanises the institutions that shape our lives – and she does this radically, as well as quietly, sensitively.’
‘There’s a tentativeness to her approach, offering a great deal of context. There’s a reluctance to centre herself and her own experience, ever conscious of the privilege of being the beneficiary of ongoing colonisation. There’s a gentleness there – and then there’s bold incitement to revolution! ‘Burn it down’! ‘Blow it up’! ‘Start again’!’
‘… Take this book in your hands and be prepared for it to radicalise you. Maybe just a little; maybe, just enough.’
Read more on the ArtsHub website ($).
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LARSEN | KEYS 