Act 1: Poems for America
On September 15, Triple Canopy will host the first half of Poems for America, a pair of symposia on poetics and conceptual art. Participants for this first symposium include Michael Corris, Aaron Kunin, Margaret Lee, K. Silem Mohammad, Ken Okiishi, Katie Raissian, Gretchen Wagner, and Matvei Yankelevich. (Details regarding the second part of the symposium, to be held in late October, will be announced on Triple Canopy’s website soon.)

Poems for America will consider the ways in which acts of unoriginal composition—quotation, appropriation, transcription, and so on—create an aesthetic milieu in which certain modes of cultural production become legible, both historically and with reference to contemporary experience. How do the strategies inherited from conceptual art permit writers and artists to narrate the construction and projection of the self in relation to lived experience (rather than emphasizing abnegation of the self in favor of engagement with abstract concepts)? How do artists and poets engage with systems of language and thought to investigate the construction of historical and political identity, even while rejecting traditional modes of self-expression? How is conceptual writing and art published, and how is it shaped by changing technologies and related approaches to publication?

2:00—3:00 p.m., À Rebours
1. In the sense contrary to natural or habitual sense. 2. In a manner contrary to common sense, reason, or usage. 3. In reverse; inversely.
Aaron Kunin in conversation with Ken Okiishi, moderated by Katie Raissian.

3:30—4:30 p.m., Conceptual Art History
Black-and-white debates, gray matters, and red herrings.
Michael Corris in conversation with Matvei Yankelevich, moderated by Lucy Ives.

5:00—6:00 p.m., Commonplaces
A talk about excerption and arrangement; anagrams, buildings, and food.
Margaret Lee in conversation with K. Silem Mohammad, moderated by Gretchen Wagner. ***

Acts 2–4
The second act of Corrected Slogans is Automatic Reading, a public seminar on conceptual reading to be held October 20, 2012.

The third act is Corrected_Slogans, a special issue of the magazine highlighting Triple Canopy's work in conceptual poetics and the expanded field of publication, including a series of articles by Erica Baum, Caroline Bergvall, and Gareth Long.

The fourth act, a book generated by the symposium and seminar and designed by Franklin Vandiver, will be published in January 2013.

Corrected Slogans (A Publication in Four Acts) is produced in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver's exhibition “Postscript: Writing after Conceptual Art,” curated by Nora Burnett Abrams and Andrea Andersson, on view at MCA Denver from October 12, 2012 until February 3, 2013.

Major support for Corrected Slogans has been provided by the Orphiflamme Foundation.

Participants
  • Michael Corris Michael Corris began his career as a member of the collective Art & Language. He continues to pursue an integrated practice of writing, organizing exhibitions, making art and teaching. Recent exhibitions include The Dallas Biennale (April 2012) and The Heide Museum of Art, Victoria, Australia (August 2012); recent publications include Ad Reinhardt (2008) and Art, Word and Image: 2,000 Years of Visual/Textual Interaction (Reaktion Books, 2010). Since November 2009, Corris has held the post of Professor of Art and Chair of the Division of Art at the Meadows School of the Arts/SMU.
  • Aaron Kunin is the author of The Sore Throat and Other Poems. He lives in Los Angeles.
  • Margaret Lee is an artist who, in 2009, founded the exhibition space 179 Canal, New York, which has since evolved into 47 Canal, operated in collaboration with Oliver Newton. Lee’s past curatorial projects and exhibitions have been hosted by White Columns, X-Initiative, and Performa ’09, among other venues. Her first solo show took place at Jack Hanley Gallery in 2011. This fall, her work will be included in the exhibition New Pictures of Common Objects, curated by Christopher Lew, at MoMA PS1.
  • K. Silem Mohammad is the author of The Front (Roof Books, 2009), Breathalyzer (Edge Books, 2008), A Thousand Devils (Combo Books, 2004), and Deer Head Nation (Tougher Disguises, 2003). He teaches at Southern Oregon University.
  • Ken Okiishi is an artist who lives between New York and Berlin. His books include One Season in Hell (2007) and A Fair to Meddling Story (2008), and his writing has appeared in Bidoun and Artforum.
  • Katie Raissian is editor-in-chief of STONECUTTER: A JOURNAL OF ART AND LITERATURE.
  • Gretchen Wagner is assistant curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at the Museum of Modern Art, where she most recently organized the exhibitions “Projects 98: Slavs and Tatars” and “Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962-1978.” This October, she will assume the position of Curator at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis.
  • Matvei Yankelevich ’s books and chapbooks include Boris by the Sea (Octopus Books, 2009), The Present Work (Palm Press, 2006), and Writing in the Margin (Loudmouth Collective, 2001). His writing has appeared in Boston Review, Damn the Caesars, Fence, Open City, and other magazines. His translations from Russian have appeared in Circumference, Harper's, New American Writing, Poetry, and the New Yorker. He teaches at Hunter College, Columbia University School of the Arts (Writing Division), and the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. He is an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse and of the Eastern European Poets Series, and a co-editor of 6×6. He lives in Brooklyn.