Oliver Doe, Trace Your Fingers Over The Edges Of Me
Book Launch: Saturday 29 September 2018, 5-8pm
Trace Your Fingers Over The Edges Of Me collects sixty poems from the last two years by artist-curator and writer Oliver Doe. The book represents his first full-length collection, having previously published two smaller books and a number of pamphlets. The work in Trace Your Fingers Over The Edges Of Me explores sexuality, gender, relationships and the body, with poems that are intensely personal, autobiographical, and intimate. The book will be available to purchase at the event for £8.
The new poems gathered in this collection consider the ways in which we see ourselves, examining bodily relations to sex, desire, intimacy, gender, and coming to terms with queerness. They amplify quiet, familiar moments in a penetratingly personal way, touching on a universal sense of longing, whilst retaining the autobiographical tilt that makes these discreet stories so captivating.
How brief those awkward summers
when our tired eyes met, semi-naked in parks,
our careful bodies speaking a language of silence.
I will hide that desire in restless dreams,
in such quiet (I can see the look in my own eyes)
as our small world makes its peace;
And the nervous dew on this morning’s grass
will tremble as my hands once did
at the sight of you in love with life.
The launch event evening will feature readings from the book starting at 6pm, as well as performances by Rene McBrearty, Lauren Vevers, Zoe Murtagh, Sophie Soobramanien and Charlotte Cullen, all friends and previous collaborators of Doe’s. From 5-6pm there will be a final chance to see two exhibitions at Vane: Mani Kambo, ‘RIFT’, and Jorn Ebner, ‘Demo Tape Vision, Version 2’.
Oliver Doe is an artist-curator and writer based in Newcastle, exploring queerness in relation to levels of abstraction. Recent exhibitions include ‘Body, you are not me’, Abject 2, Newcastle, ‘Proximities’, Hartmann Center, Peoria, USA, and ‘You’re Reading Into It: Queering Contemporary Minimalism’, Vane, Newcastle.
Rene McBrearty is a Newcastle-based artist who has exhibited and performed across the UK, most recently collaborating with Jill McKnight on ‘Life in a Northern Town’ at The NewBridge Project, Gateshead.
Lauren Vevers is a writer and arts facilitator, as well as founder of award-winning small publisher Papaya Press, based in Newcastle. She was awarded the ‘Best Young Writer’ Award and nominated for the ‘Best Writer’ category at the Blog North Awards.
Zoe Murtagh is a live artist, writer and facilitator based in Newcastle. She is an Associate Artist at ARC, Stockton, where she creates works that act as playful disruptions to everyday life.
Sophie Soobramanien’s art practice spans film, drawing, performance and writing, with an interest in fragmented, non-linear structures. She is based in Newcastle and is currently collaborating on a project with Circa Projects and Giles Bailey.
Leeds-based artist and researcher Charlotte Cullen has written for international journals including Ferrofluid and Salt. They recently completed their practice-led doctoral studentship with the University of Huddersfield. Currently a committee member of Serf, Leeds, they are responsible for serf off-site projects and serf school.
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