{"id":114,"date":"2022-04-23T16:03:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-23T16:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/?page_id=114"},"modified":"2024-02-16T17:13:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:13:06","slug":"m-b-otoole","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/m-b-otoole\/","title":{"rendered":"M.B O’Toole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from doctoral thesis: Beyond the Space of Painting and Poetry:<\/em><\/strong> Mallarm\u00e9 and the Embodied Gesture, 2020.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Mallarm\u00e9 Me Meillassoux\u2019, is one of twelve chapters recounting a series of imagined dialogues between Mallarm\u00e9, \u2018Me\u2019, and selected poets, painters, and philosophers who have responded to St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s generative poem, Un coup de D\u00e9s jamais n\u2019abolira le Hasard, <\/em>(A throw of the Dice will never abolish Chance<\/em>). The dialogues weave together my words, words appropriated from Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s poems, prose, and letters, and the words of selected poets, painters, and philosophers. These acts of appropriation and re-contextualisation question the role of context as a register of meaning. The dialogues can be seen as constellations operating across space and time \u2013 challenging the convention of an art historical context determined by narrative sequence. In the context of these configurations or points of convergence, meaning can never be fixed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em>Fig 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

We stand facing the sea, \u2018to gaze at what lies beyond our daily existence, which is to say infinity and nothingness\u2019.[1]<\/a> I consider this pale and indistinct line as it curves away from me, separating the sea from sky; the earth from the heavens. I imagine a second line, the sine of an arc extending from the ground to my right, to a point above my head, the perpendicular, and from here to a point on my left as it inscribes an arch, the arc of an angel, a messenger in the sine of x.<\/p>\n

My thoughts turn to the origin of the word sine, to jayb<\/em>, chosen by the Arabs to designate the half-cord of the double arch.[2]<\/a> The cord is formerly inscripta<\/em>, the inscribed line. I wonder about this curve, this perfect line, insinuated in Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>. I see that the poem operates under the sign of \u2018si<\/em>\u2019 contained in \u2018in(si)nuation\u2019<\/em>, a sign that proliferates in the centre pages of Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>, in and across translation [Fig.1].[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

This \u2018simple insinuation\u2019 is an ironic play. The small italic font betrays its significance. In the preface to Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>, Mallarm\u00e9 writes: \u2018the different type face between the principal theme, a secondary one, and adjacent ones, dictates their level of importance when uttered orally\u2019.[4]<\/a> Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s insinuation, whispered perhaps, carries an official seal, implying a solemn occasion, a ceremony, and permanent record.<\/p>\n

The words \u2018COMME SI | COMME SI<\/em>\u2019, (\u2018AS IF <\/em>\/ AS IF<\/em>\u2019) join to form an ornate clasp, the signatory seal of the poem. I picture the S<\/em><\/span> of SI <\/em><\/span>entwined with the S<\/em><\/span> of the second SI<\/span> – <\/em>a whirlpool. Two sixes coiled together to form a circle, now a figure of eight, which if turned on its side reveals the symbol for infinity. \"\"The figure of the siren (\u2018siren sinuosity\u2019) [5]<\/a> rises in the letter S<\/em><\/span>, which is linked to the letter f<\/em><\/span>, signified in the solitary plume, \u2018an utterly lost and lonely quill.\u2019 [6]<\/a> The quill pen, a flight feather, links by association flight and swan, script and manuscript, the plume of Hamlet\u2019s cap, and song.[7]<\/a> In \u2018COMME SI<\/em> \/ COMME SI\u2019<\/em> and AS IF <\/em>\/AS IF<\/em>\u2019, the s<\/em><\/span> and f<\/em><\/span>, recall the shape of the hole carved into the sound board of a violin, a symbol that also appears in pairs in Mallarm\u00e9\u2019 handwritten manuscript.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Music and letters, signified in SI<\/em><\/span>, in the song of the siren<\/em>, and in a final gesture, the \u2018Swan song\u2019 is repeated and doubled in Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s letters, in the sound of alliteration.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Word, image, and sound coalesce; the circle suggests a male and female principle, in the form of ying and yang, day and night are invoked, as are black and white, unleashing a whirlpool of binary relations. Symbols are conjured and doubled in letters, syllables, words, and sounds, as they emerge across the centre pages of Un coup de D\u00e9s.<\/em> A doubling that culminates in the vortex, \u2018in some immanent swirl of hilarity and horror,\u2019<\/em>[9]<\/a> the mystery is performed and revealed, simultaneously presenting a vortex and a dome, a celestial constellation recalling Sandro Botticelli\u2019s Eighth Sphere <\/em>(Heaven of The Fixed Stars<\/em>)[10]<\/a>, [Figs 2 and 3 ].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Fig. 2<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Fig.3<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning to Mallarm\u00e9, I say: \u2018The French word \u2018indice\u2019<\/em> from the line \u201cet en berce vierge indice\u201d, <\/em>(\u201cand draws from it the soothing virgin sign\u2019<\/em>\u201d),[11]<\/a> which translates as sign <\/em>also means \u2018clue\u2019 <\/em>or \u2018index\u2019<\/em>. \u2018Indice<\/em>\u2019, sounds like the English words \u2018in dice\u2019 <\/em>\u2013 in this associative chain linking French and English words, sign, clue, and index become synonymous with dice. Your symbolic gesture, like the \u201cthrow of the dice\u201d\u2013 begins a corresponding movement that unites sign and symbol \u2013 initiating temporal and spatial sequences, manifest both in the dice and beyond their delineated space.[12]<\/a> In my reading, this dynamic play gives rise to a three-dimensional mathematical model, a codex generating infinite configurations in time and space.\u2019<\/p>\n

I hesitate for a moment, before continuing. \u2018I imagine this principle applied to the twelve double pages of Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>. I see how you establish your \u201csimultaneous vision of the page,\u2019 how these apparently broken chains link and expand in the white space, forming a series of ellipses. These expand and contract into spheres, dynamic bodies, whose movement is simultaneously linear and rotational. Each movement is performed along this arc, as a series of waves emanate from the centre. In Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>, this becomes manifest in the violence of the storm, in the maelstrom, \u201cin some immanent swirl of hilarity and horror.\u201d[13]<\/a> In the vortex numbers and letters are implied, zeros and o\u2019s, and by extension, holes and wholes. The paradox of presence and absence resurfaces, and I think your idea of the book, \u201ca real book architectural and premeditated, and not a collection of chance inspirations however wonderful\u201d.\u2019 Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s words merge with my thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u2018The orphic explanation of the Earth,\u2019[14]<\/a> he replies, smiling.<\/p>\n

The tone of his voice pulls me from my musing to \u201cthis pale and indistinct line.\u201d [15]<\/a>We are standing still, eyes fixed on a point in the distance. How long have we been standing here? I wonder. How long has Mallarm\u00e9 been speaking?<\/p>\n

Bernadette O’Toole.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Mallarm\u00e9, Mallarm\u00e9 on Fashion: A Translation of the Fashion Magazine La\u00a0\u00a0 Derni\u00e8re Mode, with Commentary,<\/em> P. N. Furbank and Alex Cain, Oxford, Berg Oxford International Publishes Ltd, 2004, p. 56, [La Derni\u00e8re Mode, O. C.,<\/em> p. 732.]<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Victor J. Katz writes: \u2018The word sine <\/em>comes from a\u00a0Latin\u00a0mistranslation of the Arabic\u00a0jiba<\/em>, which is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word for half the chord,\u00a0jya-ardha\u2019<\/em>. (Katz, A History of Mathematics<\/em>, Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2008, 3rd. ed., p. 253).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>See also, Meillassoux\u2019s reading of \u2018Si\u2019 in \u2018insinuation\u2019, being equal to the seventh note of the \u2018sol-fa\u2019 musical scale. Quentin Meillassoux, The Number and the Siren: A Decipherment of Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s Coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>, translated by Robin Mackay, New York, NY: Urbanomic\/Sequence Press, 2012., p.66, [Le Nombre et la sir\u00e8ne<\/em>, Paris: Fayard, 2011]<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Mallarm\u00e9, preface to Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>, St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9: Collected Poems and Other Verse,<\/em> with parallel French text, translated by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008 [2006] p.263. Italic type is linked to the handwritten note, to cursive script and the signature, and by association the hand of the artist and line. The question of authority and of authorship is signalled and paralleled in Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s linguistic act. In a letter to Paul Verlaine, Mallarm\u00e9 refers to his \u2018fragment\u2019 [Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>] as \u2018anonymous since the text would speak by itself and without the author\u2019s voice\u2019. (See, Letter to Paul Verlaine, numbered 103, St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9<\/em>, Selected Letters of St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9<\/em>, translated by Rosemary Lloyd, Chicago IL: Chicago University Press, 1988, November 16, 1885, pp.142\u20136, 144) Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s letter in my opinion signifies the book to come, a self-generating book of letters and by association numbers.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Op. cit., Mallarm\u00e9, Un coup De D\u00e9s, St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9: Collected Poems and Other Verse,<\/em> p. 174.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., p.172<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid. The figure of Hamlet is conjured up in the line \u2018a bitter prince of the reef.\u2019 Hamlet\u2019s hat and plume are separated in the storm, \u2018that cap of midnight\u2026the velvet crumpled\u2019, and \u2018an utterly lost and lonely quill\u2019, paralleling the separation of the master (poet) \u2018a corpse cut off by its arm from the secret it withholds\u2019, implying a separation between mind and body.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> The Swan Song, from the ancient Greek \u03ba\u03cd\u03ba\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u1f86\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1;\u00a0Latin carmen cygni<\/em>, defined as a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death (OED<\/em>) In Mallarm\u00e9 the swan is emblematic of Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s poetic vision.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., pp. 170-71.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> In Fig. 2, words from the centre pages of Un coup de D\u00e9s<\/em>, are place over a drawing of Sandro Botticelli, Paradiso XXVI, The Fixed Stars<\/em>, [Fig.3, one of a series of drawings illustrating the cantos from Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy<\/em>]. In the Eighth sphere (heaven of fixed stars); Beatrice entreats St. Peter to examine her ward in true faith, the prime theological virtue; Dante\\’s confession of faith. Sandro Botticelli, c.1480\u2013c1495. <\/em>Zeichnungen von Sandro Botticelli zu Dantes G\u00f6ttlicher Kom\u00f6die; verkleinerte Nachbildungen der Originale im Kupferstich-Kabinett zu Berlin und in der Bibliothek des Vatikans; mit einer Einleitung und der Erkl\u00e4rung der Darstellungg hrsg. von F. Lippermann<\/em>. Berlin: G. Grote, 1921.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u00a0Op. cit., Mallarm\u00e9, Un coup de D\u00e9s,<\/em> pp. 170-71.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> See, Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s \u2018abstract vision,\u2019 \u2018That music and letters are two sides of the same coin; here extending into obscurity; there dazzling with clarity; alternative sides to the one and only phenomenon I have called the Idea\u2019. (Mallarm\u00e9, \u2018<\/em>Music and Letters\u2019, in Divagations,<\/em> translated by Barbara Johnson, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 173\u201398, 189. [Divigations<\/em>, Paris: Bibliotheque-Charpentier, 1897].<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Op. cit., Mallarm\u00e9, Un coup de D\u00e9s,<\/em> pp. 170-71.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Op. cit., Mallarm\u00e9, <\/em>Letter to Paul Verlaine, <\/em>15 November 1885, St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9, \u2018<\/em>Autobiography\u2019, Divagations, <\/em>pp. 1-6, 3.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Op. cit., Mallarm\u00e9, Mallarm\u00e9 on Fashion, <\/em>p. 56<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O’Toole. On Some Death Throe. ‘Painting Doesn’t Count’. <\/em>Bridewell Studio Gallery, Liverpool. 2021.<\/span> Photograph Fiona Filby.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O’Toole. On Some Death Throe. ‘Painting Doesn’t Count’. <\/em>Bridewell Studio Gallery, Liverpool. 2021.<\/span> Photograph Fiona Filby.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O’Toole. Variant Sail #1 (I of XII paintings). Oil on panel. 56cm x 3cm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O\u2019Toole, Digital image showing a cumulative syllabic count of Un coup de D\u00e9s <\/em>in numbers, 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B O’Toole. Books on Books. 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O’Toole. Multiple Video Installation. Sheffield Institute of the Arts, Yorkshire Arts Space. 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O\u2019Toole, Resurrecting I, <\/em>Video Installation, 12 mins duration ( 2016-18). Sheffield Institute of the Arts, Yorkshire Arts Space. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O\u2019Toole, Gesture Series II, (painting 2)<\/em>, ‘Refractive Pool’. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Oil on board, 120cm diameter, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O\u2019Toole,<\/em> Gesture Series II. ‘Refractive Pool”. <\/em>Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Oil on plaster.\u00a0 Dimensions Variable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O\u2019Toole,<\/em> Gesture Series II. ‘<\/em>Refractive Pool”. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Oil on plaster.\u00a0 Dimensions Variable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

M.B. O\u2019Toole, detail of ‘Gesture’, bronze, On Some Death Throe<\/em>, ‘Painting Doesn\u2019t Count’, Bridewell Studios, 2021.<\/span> Photograph, Fiona Filby.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from doctoral thesis: Beyond the Space of Painting and Poetry: Mallarm\u00e9 and the Embodied Gesture, 2020. \u2018Mallarm\u00e9 Me Meillassoux\u2019, is one of twelve chapters recounting a series of imagined dialogues between Mallarm\u00e9, \u2018Me\u2019, and selected poets, painters, and philosophers who have responded to St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s generative poem, Un coup de D\u00e9s jamais n\u2019abolira le […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1463,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-114","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/temporalities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}