_____________
Edouard Manet Le Suicidé, 1877 – 1881
Oil on canvas
____________
Célestin François Nanteuil The Suicide, 1830s
Lithograph on paper
______________
Buster Keaton The Three Ages, 1923
b&w film, 63 minutes
______________
Wilhelm Kotarbiński Grave of a Suicide, 1900
Oil on canvas
_____________
Daniel Chong Remnants of a failed wish, 2018.
Black long sleeve T-shirt and wood rod
_____________
Wei Guangqing Suicide Project, 1988 – 2007
‘This installation consists of three angled panels leaning against a wall, and three suspended ropes, each with a noose. The panels display photographs, and sheets of paper with text are presented on the second panel. The photographs document various enactments of suicide. Several photographs depict a railway track, on which a figure in white lies face down on a white blanket with a large cross. In other photographs, he lies facing up, on a similar blanket, holding a knife that points to his body. Wei Guangqing directed these theatrical scenes in Wuhan in September 1988, with the performer wrapped entirely in white cloth with a black armband. Informed by the Taoist concept of ‘one’—a state of unity—and Albert Camus’s view of suicide as the one serious philosophical problem, the performer acts out the role of ‘one’ addressing the philosophical question of suicide.’
_______________
Maurizio Cattelan BIDIBIDOBIDIBOO, 1996
Taxidermized squirrel, ceramic, formica, wood, paint, steel
_______________
Ravi Rajcoomar Suicide, 2015
‘As an artist Ravi Rajcoomar is confronted daily in his native Surinam with so many different aspects of life with different people. Some of those aspects are: drugs, relationships, sex, suicide, death, financial problems, child problems and different difficult social circumstances in which people sometimes are.’
_____________
Sarah Lucas Is Suicide Genetic?, 1996
chromogenic print
_____________
Anna Vasof Snowman Commits Suicide, 2020
‘Snowman Commits Suicide is an installation where a snowman commits a very slow suicide during three days of minus 20 degrees using a fancy hairdryer.’
_____________
Luc Tuymans Suicide, 1975
Oil On Canvas
_____________
Joanna Rajkowska Suiciders, 2018
‘The artist uses photo documentation of suicide attacks over the last decades. Shot in Indonesia, Russia, Israel or Pakistan, the photographs are juxtaposed with nearly identical images featuring the artist’s living body in the place of the remains of the victims. Rajkowska uses a modified rotating billboard technique, whose “predecessor” was a “simultaneous” image of two saints, painted on both sides of a concertina-like shaped wooden panel. Instead of layering the images in a photographic collage, such technique emphasizes the difference – in order to see it, you need to change the point of view.’
_______________
Cai Guo-Qiang Danger Book: Suicide, 2008
‘The artist mixed gunpowder with paste to draw various pictures in each Danger Book. He then placed a bundle of matches on a striking strip along the base of each book’s spine. A dangling string was attached to the bundle of matches to entice the reader to pull on it and ignite the book. Concept description by the artist is as follows: “Be careful of books. Be careful with books. Be careful or one can become a weapon-wielder. Be careful or one can become the victim”.’
_______________
Elianna Renner Harakiri, 2005
steel, polyester, wool, varnish
_______________
Ben Vautier Flux Suicide Kit, 1967-1969
‘Seven-compartment clear plastic box contains various objects one might use use to commit suicide, including an electric plug with copper wire exposed, matches, a razor blade, a fish hook, a steel ball, a white string, nails, a piece of broken glass and a plastic bag.’
_______________
Richard Bosman Various, 1980 – 1982
Oil on canvas
_______________
Marlene Dumas Imaginary 1, 2002
oil on canvas
______________
Kurar Social Suicide, 2019
Stencil on canvas
_____________
Halil Balabin and Merav Kamel Suicide Hitler, 2015
Fabric
_____________
Lindsey Louise Doolittle Faces After Suicide, 2018
Ink on paper
_______________
Qiu Anxiong The Doubter, 2010
‘Qiu Anxiong’s The Doubter replaces the subject of Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Marat (1793) with a synthetic chimpanzee, which lies limp in a bathroom-cage with a (fake) gun on the tile floor.’
_____________
Edmonia Lewis The Death of Cleopatra, 1876
carved marble
______________
Masahiro Shinoda Double Suicide, 1969
‘In Masahiro Shinoda’s striking adaptation of a bunraku puppet play (featuring the music of famed composer Toru Takemitsu), a paper merchant sacrifices family, fortune, and ultimately life for his erotic obsession with a prostitute.’
_____________
Paul Rebeyrolle Suicide Series, 1982
oil on paper laid on canvas
_____________
Lynn Hershman Leeson Suicide Series—Blazing Self-Portrait, Mid Burn Extermination, 1965
wax, cardboard, netting, cigarette, hair, glasses, sculpture
_____________
Li Wei High Place, 29 Levels of Freedom, 2003
Cibachrome print
______________
Paul Chan 1st Light, 2005
‘Beginning with a prismatic, gorgeous pool of radiant colored light, tracks the course of a day from dawn to night. Against the background of shifting light everything else appears in silhouette. A telephone pole and street light are the only objects that remain grounded and orient us in a world where everyday objects, including cell phones, laptops, bicycles, tires, and trucks float upwards. The tranquility of the graceful, dream-like dance of objects in space is shattered when the silhouette of first one body, then another, and another, fall from the sky.’
______________
Raymond Pettibon No Title, 1986
Ink on paper
______________
Kevin Francis Gray Ghost Girl, Ghost Boy 2007
Statuario Marble and Glass Crystal Beads
______________
Tanya Preminger Harakiri, 2015
earth, foam, plastic
_______________
Vasan Sitthiket Committing Suicide Culture: The only way Thai farmers escape debt, 1995
Plywood, metal, rope, rice and paint
______________
Lydia Lunch Gloomy Sunday, 1980
‘In Vienna, a teenage girl drowned herself while clutching a piece of sheet music. In Budapest, a shopkeeper killed himself and left a note that quoted from the lyrics of the same song. In London, a woman overdosed while listening to a record of the song over and over. The piece of music that connects all these deaths is the notorious “Gloomy Sunday.” Nicknamed the “Hungarian suicide song,” it has been linked to over one hundred suicides, including the one of the man who composed it.
‘In 1933, the Hungarian-born Seress (née Rudi Spitzer) was a 34-year-old struggling songwriter. Some accounts have him living in Paris, others Budapest. The story goes that after his girlfriend left him, he was so depressed that he wrote the melody that became “Gloomy Sunday.” A minor-key ribbon of blue smoke, the tune was given an equally melancholy lyric – in Hungarian – by Seress’s friend, the poet Laszlo Javor. Some reports claim it was Javor’s girlfriend who left him, inspiring the song as a poem first. Others say that Seress wrote his own lyric, about war and apocalypse, then Javor later changed it to a heartbreak ballad.
‘Whatever the case, “Szomorú Vasárnap,” as it was titled, didn’t make much of a splash at first. But two years later, a recorded version by Pál Kálmar was connected to a rash of suicides in Hungary. The song was then allegedly banned. Short of learning Hungarian and trawling through Budapest newspapers from the 1930s, it is impossible to verify any of this (Hungary does historically have one of the higher suicide rates in the world – approximately 46 out of every 100,000 people take their own lives there every year).’
______________
Erik Hobijn Delusions of Self-Immolation, 1993
‘Delusions of Self-Immolation, aka ‘the suicide machine’, was a built by Erik Hobijn in the 1990s to set members of the public on fire. Literally. The person would stand on a platform covered in a flame-resistant gel. A flame-thrower would then burn their body for less then half a second. The platform then turns on itself so that the extinguisher situated on the opposite side of the machine can extinguish the person immediately.’
*
p.s. Hey. If anyone’s interested, there’s an interview with me about ‘I Wished’ and the George Miles Cycle novels newly up on the site Diacritik. You can read it in French or in English. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Yes, I’ve read about that Saville doc and am very curious to see it. There must be some way to see it over here, and I’ll find out. Thanks, Ben. ** Misanthrope, Yeah, I like stills obviously. Especially when they’re stacked up. Especially when at least some of them move. I have a rainy day ahead of me, and I’ll figure it out, as will you with your (fill-in-the-blank) day. ** T. J., Hey! Awesome that it/his stuff is up your considerable alley. Thank you. ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you, sir. ** Tosh Berman, I’ve never had the opportunity to see his work projected, which must be so the way to go. ** Nick Toti, Hi. We’re going to have to try to find some ‘in’ with a home owner, I think. There’s a real chance that we’ll end up needing to shoot the interiors and exteriors in separate houses, largely because we’re looking for a house that appears to be in a rural-ish area, and that means we would need to find and pay for lodging for everyone for almost the entire shoot, which we really can’t afford. But that’s hard too since it’s about a home haunt so the interiors/exteriors not being seamless is a challenge. Ugh, but we have to sort it, and we will. I wish we’d had a way to shoot the film not in California, but what with our small budget, we need a lot of help, and LA is where we know people who will. We’re going to do the post in Paris, so we’re fine there. Saw your email. Thanks! ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Everyone, Here’s Steve: ‘For Gay City News, I reviewed FEAST, currently streaming on MUBI. In a climate less concerned with “good representation” of LGBTQ people and more open to formal experimentation, I’m sure this film would’ve gotten a lot more exposure.’ The Yellow Vest movement is basically finished. It was keyed to certain timely issues, sort of like Occupy Wall Street. It involved a pretty big mix of people from all over the spectrum. My guess would be that their votes went to either Melenchon or Le Pen or the Communist Fabien Roussel, but there are a lot of parties here, so it’s hard to say. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Well, if most of your prospective submitters didn’t live in other countries, you might well have a flirty bad writer to deal with. And hopefully a cute one. Ah, great, you got totally into the complicated nature of my yesterday love! When I was thinking it up, and imagining the consequence, I too became kind of vexed. Boy, your love of this morning would come in so, so handy! That’s a guaranteed Nobel Prize winner right there. Love extracting every viral TikTok influencer’s teeth and replacing them with popcorn, G. ** T, Hi! I too question Mr. Morrison’s taste in musical collaborators. When I watch the films with music, I turn the volume down low enough that I can still tell what the sonic attempt is meant to be technically but barely. Enjoy the concert. Damn, power line up. Right, onto the next score. Oh, you have been to the French Disneyland. Okay. I’m trying to hold out until they open the new Marvel Campus in the early summer, so, if you don’t mind waiting a bit, I can assure you that Zac and I would love to hit those heights in your company. Oh, fuck, ongoing leg pain! That’s sucks very hard. Um, I’ve hung out with you, and I don’t recall you having a faggoty gait, not that I guess I would recognise one if I saw one that wasn’t in a 1950s movie. Maybe stilts? You could become the famous stilts guy. You could be a Paris tourist attraction. You could be the Paris equivalent of Angelene. No, really, ugh, sorry. There’s gotta be a solution. You just nailed exactly what’s missing from Disneyland Paris! How did you do that? I give you a Wednesday that replaces every jar of Nutella in every supermarket, large and small, in Paris with jars of Jif Smooth Peanut Butter that have a little mouths and can speak French and beg everyone who passes by to adopt them. xo, D. ** Bill, I think you’ll like Morrison’s stuff, if I know my Bill, that is. The title ‘My Volcano’ is, on the hand, deceptively meh, and, on the other, very strangely compelling. Huh. ** l@rst, Your poem is awesome! I like it a ton! More -> more publications -> respect -> fame. I’ve never seen ‘Cats’, probably not surprisingly. I think I would have had to see it like you did in 8th grade to have ever seen it. ** Okay. The theme of your thematic post du jour is suicide. Sorry about that? See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
*
Donald Cammell is the most fascinating of all suicidals as h regarded Death as a kind of “Trip Experience. His pal Kenneth Angercalls suicided “The Magicof Sef-Murder”
Of the people that I’ve known oer the years the suicide that stands out is that of my friend Peter Blum. He hung himself in jail after being arrested for the attempted rape of two women.Bot the rape attempts and the suicide were totally “outof character” as I had known hm.
Another pitch for my GoFundMe pade s’il vous plait
https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraising-for-our-friend-david-ehrenstein?member=15151553&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
Hi Dennisss– I enjoyed the Diacritik piece. Esp. the dissection of George Miles Cycle titles/(non)translations. Monosyllables : multimeanings. Also, rad theme parks maps the other day. Catch up soon… Much to report!!xo Jack
The images of Suicide are so strong. I can’t imagine myself in that state-of-mind. Unless, it’s a pain or aging issue and I just want to hurry up the process. Watching someone dying is very horrifying and moving at the same time. Thank god for Morphine. But you know, suicide also effects the living, and dealing with a loved one’s passing is horrific. I’ve been thinking of trauma (but who hasn’t in the 21st-century) a lot. Those who leave their body in a horrifying manner is something that I can’t understand. The shootings and so forth. I do admire those who go into the wilderness and disappear. I had a dream recently where my parents got on the bus, but wouldn’t allow me to get on the bus with them. They just waved goodbye, as the bus leaves. An excellent blog today.
Today’s thematic post makes for a sensitive, thought-provoking survey highly undeserving of the Facebook smackdown. Their fussiness really messed with my morning routine.
Fascinating info about the Gloomy Sunday genesis. Lydia Lunch does a great cover too.
Many intriguing items today, Dennis. Shinoda’s Double Suicide is a classic.
Interesting associations with Steve’s review of Feast. The trailer looks terrific. I’m not surprised it got all these unhappy reviews on letterboxd.
I agree “My Volcano” is an odd choice for a title. By the way, for what it’s worth, it won the Sator New Works Award, as in Ken Baumann’s old press.
Bill
Hi!!
Oh, the Sarah Lucas and Paul Rebeyrolle pieces. And “Szomorú Vasárnap”, of course. Thank you for today’s post!
You might be right. It’s time to move, I guess, haha.
Yes, that book-to-pastry love was a difficult one. Which of your books would you decide to eat? And oh, no. I do hope you don’t have to deal with cockroaches or anything similar…?
Hahaha, I’m guessing that’d only make them even more popular. I’d surely follow them for the simple sight. Thank you! Love sending his favorite John Wieners poem to join today’s collection: “DAVID ASPELIN // died at 16 / put a rifle in his mouth, and laid across his bed at night. / After he held my hand on the way home and said / I will be dead tomorrow.” Od.
Hey Dennis! Love today’s post! It’s really intense and beautiful at once. Great stuff. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I dig the sound of the new Giselè production. Did you check out my album btw? It’s okay if not! You mentioned being very busy haha.
By the way I enjoyed the Austin Osman Spare post from a while back, I have a tattoo of one of his drawings.
https://letterboxd.com/9413/list/suicide-lappel-du-vide-felo-de-se/
Well, hi. Long-time listener, etc. And hi to the other regulars and old friends. There’s SO much on the daily Days I often feel like I can’t get started commenting when I have stuff on my schedule. So: They’re all great, and maybe sometime I can go back to the selected ones to think more.
I expected maybe David E would have something to say about Gloomy Sunday and Billie Holliday . . . I remember hearing her recording with my father telling me the story of the song when I was young enough to feel scared of it, like listening to it would ruin my young life. Like the right-wing theory of books and ideas about sex, race, history–magic brainwashing.
I <3 Double Suicide a lot, and even though I know little about Japan and only a bit more about bunraku and Japanese theater, I taught it a few times because it illustrates the ideas of theatrical and cinematic space so well. Illusion. It's pretty breath-taking: a little world in a room collapses with the impact of any CGI earthquake, hurricane, flood. Weird and wonderful matchup with Busby Berkeley production numbers, especially Carmen Miranda in The Gang's All here.
I went to AWP and it was good because though I didn't expect to be . . . charmed, exactly, I met some very nice people. Instant love with the 11:11 people in . . . Minneapolis? . . . who just adore you. (Who doesn't?) Also some other weirdos, which was great, because when it comes to poetry it was mostly like, "Trees make me / Want to save / The earth" and "I am so proud to be whoever I am / That I don't need to tell you / How proud I am" and people saying, "Oh, her poetry is great. I agree with everything she says." (Well, there were people there a lot meaner than I'm being.) And I *networked* and got a few cool offers. I didn't think to check who was there cause i thought I'd see it online, but apparently I missed Lonely Christopher and Chip Delaney, whom I've never met in person.
AND I'm supposed to arrive in Paris May 2 — surprise! I think I wrote a long comment here back in the winter that disappeared as it posted and then lost track of it — and expect to be at the good ol' Récollets till June 24, longest visit yet, I have stuff to do. It seems like you may be away some? but I haven't put it all together from your notes here. Anyway: Coffee? Nachos? Cultural events?
(That's if everything doesn't totally change after April 24. I'm OK with any restrictions, as long as they let me in the country.)
My friend James Han Mattson decided he'd like to try Paris, too, so he's at the Récollets pretty much the same dates as me, first time visiting. Jim had a novel out last year, Reprieve, which did quite well and got noted a lot (and maybe I mentioned it here?). It is not the kind of book I think you often read, but it might have caught your eye because it takes place in a full-contact haunted house attraction, and Jim does some really great work moving between the action scenes in theme rooms and the life experiences of the contestants trying to make it to the last room.
We just got back from a week at the Grand Canyon (pics on FB) and it'll probably haunt my dreams for a while. Between now and leaving I'm assembling stuff in electronic file form so I don't have to take books and journals with me. (Doing, yeah, the poetry ms and a thing on dreams.)
So I hope you're well and that if you are away from Paris in May and June, it isn't for the whole time, and that we will re-enter in imagination the good old days.
XXOO to the max
Gloomy Sunday
Dennis!
Hello!
How have you been my friend? I have been well, haven’t been working on music most of this week because ive been conceptualising my show for that festival I am playing in august, I have been given a 45 min set (which is fantastic) on a sunday afternoon (slightly less fantastic, but the festival is always busy and highly anticipated, especially after a two year break) i have found a guitarist (my friend will) to play guitar in the show, his role will be moreso textual, weaving melody and harmony over the top of the songs that will play and sometimes mushing them into discordence, but then whipping them back to pleasentry. My other friend Tom will be doing live sequencing and musical editing, adding effects, I will also have a marching snare drum strapped to me for a breif period of the show, as well as a tambourine in some songs. I have also devised two costumes that i will do a costume change with halfway through the show (on stage too) the first one is a sort of somewhat sensual american football inspired outfit with the tight pants, the kneepads, the almost crop top with big sholder pads and a helmet, then the second is a sort of dar sides catholic schoolboy outfit with short shorts, formal black shoes and socks with a sock garter, and a sleeveless sweater, i thought the ferociosness of my performance mixed with the sort of preppy look might be interesting.
I intend to make my set a showcase of my next album, I will probably perform the album start to finish and maybe replace one or two songs with older songs and change the sound to fit the new album more.
Good news too on that front, as well as 2 label dudes from two different labels coming to see my set there is also a booking agent from london coming to watch too. incredible, this set really is my make or break, its my sort of experimental X Factor Audition hahaha, super rad.
Also the organiser has said I can have a rider (rad) and a lighting rider so i can synch up very specific elements of songs to a specific lighting colour, or pattern. Which really allows me to create an entire theatrical physical performance, I am absolutely elated by all this and I am more than happy to share the process with you as it develops.
How have you been? hows the film going? tell me everything!
Lots and lots of big luv
your friend Ryan the Lion
Another Suicide that greatly moved me
And another As Tony had reached the end of the road with AIDS
Hi Dennis, I’m only now discovering your sublime work and thus have much back peddling to do, which is very exciting. I actually found you through a recent search on my two longtime favourite artists Bresson and Blanchot, so have been reading many of your interviews to further investigate your influences. I’m an art critic and poet though have spent a large part of my life performing and recording music under the pseudonym Shocking Pinks. Anyway, I’m very, very pleased to be submerged in your work (currently enjoying the interview you did with Ryan Trecartin whom I also adore). Regards, Nick x