A palimpsest is a manuscript that has been scraped off and reused. An example of this practise dates from Roman times when text would be written on wax-coated tablets that would be smoothed over and used again.
Vellum manuscripts were over-written due to the cost of the material.
Sometimes reuse had the effect of rendereing the earlier work obsolete or comparatively less important. An example of this would be pagan texts being overwritten by Christian scripture or even pagan sites being overlaid with Christian churches.
Intentism celebrates the Intention to meaning bridge that links unshakeably the journey form the artist’s creative intention to the meaning of the finished vehicle.
Subsequently, the creative intentional journey is of central importance to an Intentist.
Historically artists have found themselves in two camps regarding the creative journey. Firstly, the artist may see this journey as deeply personal. This may cause him/her to keep the work secret until the work is completed and may even contribute to an artist destroying a work if it is considered a failed piece before it has been publicly viewed. Conversley, as with several of the exponents of action painting, the journey may be considered as more important than the finished work.
Intentists celebrate the creative journey both theoretically and visually. The artist’s creative journey is manifest in the work as a trail that can be pursued.
Whether in painting or written work the layers of imagery or text that is rewritten or edited are left somewhat visible. This multiple layering is why many Intentists have been referred to as Palimpsests.
Nevertheless, the final, resolved work is not submerged in a muddle of intentional edits but is clearly present and distinguishable from the work in progress.
Palimpsestism is perhaps the artistic approach most synonymous with Intentism and has been discussed in various debates, lectures and texts, including the book,’Documenting Performance’ published by Bloomsbury.
Below are some examples of Intentist Palimpsestic work.
1.Never Too Late to Mend by Maria Beddoes
Intentist artist Maria Beddoes has made beautiful pieces of glass work by layering her highly detailed patterns and text on top of each other. In these way, her work is considered palimpsestic.
2. The School of Postmodernism by Vittorio Pelosi
The School of Postmodernism is a large-scale painting by Vittorio Pelosi that is a satire on Raphael’s The School of Athens. In Raphael’s great fresco, he positions all the greatest Greek thinkers in an architectual setting that would be impossible to build. In Pelosi’s work, he positions the most influential figures in postmodernism in similar positions to Raphael’s work. The setting is postmodern architect Robert Venturi’s Sainsbury Wing of The National Gallery, London.
Pelosi used palimspestism as an attempt to visualise his intentions. Often referred by Intentists as the ‘creative trail’ some artists leave elements of the editing process in the final work so the viewer as trace the artist’s creative processes.
Upon closer inspection (see below) you can see how each figure has traces of edits and corrections still visible. For this reason, The School of Postmodernism is considered a palimpsestic work.
Below are a couple of short videos explaining the symbolism in more detail. The videos are part of a large collection of short Intentist videos on Youtube called ‘Intentist Bites.’
Below is a fly-on-the-wall recording of artist Vittorio Pelosi and brother and artist, Luciano Pelosi, discussing the work prior to an exhibition:
Below are some much earlier examples of palimpsestism from Vittorio Pelosi’s work:
3. Airshaft by Sam Christie
Sam Christie is a writer and filmmaker. His work relies on reflexive and performative methodologies that filmically embody the Intentist message.
The work below is entitled Airshaft. The video shows Sam playing an isolated airshaft for the nearby hydroelectric dam at Nant Y Moch in the mountains around Plynlimon. The sound is built from layers of field recordings . In essence , this work is a visual and sonic palimpsest.
4. Palimpscene
Palimpscene is a re-working of a short video made by With Intent Films and director Dennis Bueso-Calix. The original concept was to be shown as a triptych visually femonstrating a film’s creative journey from initial conception to final shoot. Unfortunately, the final piece was never realized.
However, with Palimpscene the spirit of the original in exploring themes of intentionalism, the creative trail and palimpsestism remain intact.
The work was created during the global Covid 19 pandemic so all recordings were on zoom.
Three actors were invited to participate. The actors were Alphonso, an actor, model and writer from Croydon. Sarah, a graduate with first class honours from Birmingham Conservaroire who appeared in the feature film ‘Lapwing.’ Finally, Alison who has played leading roles all over the UK including The Royal Exchange and has written for the BBC and Channel 4.
Initially, the actors were asked to improvise for around three minutes. They were asked to talk about making a script out of this spontaneous conversation. One of the actors was filmed at this point. The conversation was then typed up and the actors were invited back for a read through. A second actor was recorded reading. Finally, the actors were invited to learn the script and returned for rehearsals. Finally, the three performers acted their way through the very lines that were originally spoken naturally by them. The third actor was recorded. Finally these talking heads were edited together into one conversation showing the three creative stages of the process in a palimpsestic format.
5. A Life in Soliloquy
Soliloquy is a Rodgers and Hammerstein song from Carousel sung by Frank Sinatra several times during his career. The palimpsestic version bleeds three versions together: the 1946 version, the 1963 version and a live rendition in 1995. The song is about a young man who has just learnt that he will become a father and is contemplating how life changing it will be. In 1946 Sinatra himself was a youmg father which gives a certain youthful feel to the rendition. This then bleeds into the 1963 version when Sinatra had become an grandfather and there is a more mature quality to his interpretation of fatherhood. Finally, as Sinatra ends the somg declaring that he will find enough money to support the child ‘or die’, Simatra himself was only a few years short of his own death. This palimpsestic work explicitly shows the ageing process as Sinatra interprets the milestone of fatherhood.
6. The Obscure Object called Desire
In the early noughties British band Remodel were involved with the Intentist movement. For an Intentist exhibition the band produced a palimpsestic version of their single The Obscure Object called Desire. In the left speaker an earlier rehearsed version can be heard and in the right a more developed, later version.
Scroll down on the link below of Intentism exhibitions to listen to the audio.
7. Phoenix by Gideon Parry
Below Gideon speaks to Sydney Heighington about the work.
8. Palimpsestism in Intentist Literature
Intentist poets encounter unique issues. Poetry compared to the static arts is linear. This means that the traditional approach to palimspsestism would layer multiple revisions of texts on top of each other. This would make the text at best, a visual piece of art and at worst unreadable.
Therefore, Intentist poets have experimented in different ways. Gideon Parry’s ‘Grind’ leaves rejected phrases in parenthesis.
Vittorio Pelosi’s ‘Park’ combines the final version with the work in progress inverted underneath.
Finally, Luciano Pelosi’ ‘Homeward’ retains unnecessary parts enclosed in commas, in a similar way to non-defining relative clauses.
Gideon Parry
Grind
((Sitting on a train.
Weakened by the weather, (it’s) gormless, overshadowed by snippets from last night’s dream,
Of love rejected.))
Slumped on a tube seat,
My head rattling against the casement window,
My stomach in knots,
(The power of 8,000 atoms)
(Still dreaming)
Having dreamt about a (girl) vision who left me six years ago….
(Again).
And now, only waiting for tonight…
To wash away the lemon (traces) grinds of the night before.
Vittorio Pelosi
Park (2011)
I lay around, dazed, immune to the world.
Yet, it reaches out to me, unbending.
Choking, I sit up.
Heavenward.
Which way to the world?
Bright eyes? She teases. I turn – I must.
A discarded note.
I choke.
I turn, I must. A discarded note. I choke.
She plays, she teases. I turn – I must.
I look towards my watch, counting.
Bright eyes? She plays, she jumps, she
Choking, I sit up, heavenward.
Which way to the world?
Bright eyes?
I supplant my attention on the girl in the park
I lay around, dazed, immune to the world.
Yet it reaches out to me. Unbending. I choke
Luciano Pelosi
Homeward 2010
I took my broken shadow home
It held tight to my, feet, ankles
As I dragged it through the dusk
It looked like, leaking, seeping
,Oil, Rather
The coils of midnight’s serpent
It stretched and how it grew
So, great, long
But as we neared my house
The evening’s darkness swallowed
Once
And it was gone
9. The Gamekeeper
C-type print by Craig Edwards and Rhod Walls 2010.
The image uses multi-exposure to create a palimpsestic image.
For more details of this work, watch the video below: