Chanson d´Automne (Fall Song)

An assemblage of articles from The Wall Street Journal dated September 2008, a month rich in doomsday headlines culminating with the near-meltdown of the world financial system. Within these clippings, an alternative narrative emerges in the form of verses of poetry, as if decoded within the newsprint and materialized by markings in red grease pencil. Poetry revealed from within the fracture lines of a dysfunctional economic order.

The juxtaposition takes on a politically enigmatic meaning when we are reminded of a prior appearance in the media of these same verses from Paul Verlaine’s Chanson d’Automne (Autumn Song). “When a sighing begins / in the violins / of the autumn song” was broadcast on the BBC in 1944 as a coded signal to the French resistance that the invasion of Normandy was imminent. And on the eve of D-Day “My heart is drowned / in the slow sound / languorous and long” triggered acts of sabotage behind enemy lines.

Chanson d’Automne treats the drama of the Fall of 2008 with a little poetic humor, while at the same time questioning what forms of resistance, either covert or overt, remain in play at a time when capitalism is in crisis, and triumphant theories about “The End of History” are being replaced by the utter uncertainty of chapters to come.