Tapeworm Foundry
Similar to the works of Duchamp, The Tapeworm Foundry presents Darren Wershler painting his
own work of conceptual art in his fantastic book of proposals. The book is listed as a poetry but it is unlike any other work of
this genre. The book contains sixty pages of micro-stories that can lead into
any direction. Each sentence ends with the word “andor” before offering up the
next proposal. The Tapeworm Foundry puts forward a series of proposals and
ideas that the reader has the ability to carry out. The book is extremely
conceptual as every sentence has the potential to start a journey. Although
this is an unusually long work of poetry, it is a very fast read as the book is
amusing and clever.
The Tapeworm Foundry has the potential to incite
action within the readers which is why the book is intriguing. These proposals can
be carried out by anyone, and was undertaken by a group of University of
Pennsylvania students who decided to carry out some of these ridiculous tasks.
However outrageous some of these proposals may seem, a few can be easily
carried out by anyone. For instance, anyone can “dial a number at random and
then finagle your way into reading poems to the person who answers”, but it
would be much more difficult for an ordinary person to casually “type the words
dylan thomas on a piece of paper but leave the paper on the roller and then
submerge the entire typewriter in a solution of white alcohol calling the
resulting object underwood milk.”
The only thing more challenging than carrying out this
proposal is attempting to come up with a genre of this book. Although it is
listed as poetry, the book is the perfect example of a conceptual book.
The word “andor” takes the place of a period between sentences although it is
the complete opposite of this mark of punctuation. The combination of “and” and
“or” allows the reader to see the book in their own way, opening up the work to
many different interpretations. You can never read this book the same way twice
and that is the reason it will always be successful in getting across its
message.
*****
Parker Bryant
is a student at Indian Springs School in Alabama.
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