konvolut m

Googling the phrase 'real plums' (Mary McCarthy), came across www.residua.org, which collects 28 years of postcard-length writings by one Ranko Bon. Croatian by birth, professor of Construction Management and Economics in Reading; but apparently active on the margins of the UK art world -- apparently, many cards were/are actually sent to figures in same. (Some are letters to the editor, to -The Economist- and suchlike; he also manages to creep out Sophie Calle, no mean trick, via his correspondence.) A proto-blog of sorts -- some annually (self?)-published volumes early on, the whole project online by 2001. Entries I checked randomly from the last two years indicate that he's moved back to Croatia (retired?--he's 58); these are quieter in tone. I was instantly drawn to this project, because of its elegance, voluminousness, and obscurity (Cornell, Ray Johnson, Dickinson, Pollard), but much of the art-writing is just cranky, less about work than reputation (though this was something Johnson was obsessed with as well).

Did get one interesting fact: Brit artist Tracy Emin (of abject bed-embroidered-w/names-of-men-I-slept-w/ fame) used to be a couple with Billy Childish.

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