Artists: Dom Sylvester Houédard (with performances by Pavel Büchler, Bohumila Grögerová, Barbara Kapusta, Janice Kerbel, Ferdinand Kriwet)
Exhibition title: Ora et lege II: endlessly inside
Curated by: Monika Čejková
Venue: Broumov Monastery, Broumov, The Czech Republic
Date: June 25 – September 24, 2023
Photography: all images copyright: Ora et lege, Educational and Cultural Center Broumov and Tomáš Souček
The second round of the Ora et lege (Pray and Read) project at the Broumov Monastery will present the work of the Benedictine monk and prominent British neo-avant-garde artist, Dom Sylvester Houédard (1924–1992). Also known as “dsh” or “dom”, he was widely recognized during his lifetime as one of the leading theorists and important representatives of concrete poetry. His solo exhibition entitled endlessly inside is his first in the Czech Republic and one of the projects bringing his unjustly forgotten work back into cultural awareness. The exhibition will include a series of performances by other leading artists associated with concrete poetry as it is reflected today.
Houédard is a unique figure in the history of modern art, with a life and cultural background that is difficult to grasp, straddling the divide between London’s counterculture and the enclosure of the Benedictine monastery at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire. He was a concrete poetry pioneer in the UK, and during his lifetime he was recognized as a leading theorist and major representative of the movement of experimental poetry at the intersection of visual art and literature. This developed simultaneously in many parts of the world from the 1950s onwards, and its golden age ended during the 1970s.
The solo exhibition endlessly inside features approximately 60 works in three sections, representing Houédard’s interests in theology, Eastern religion (especially Tantric Buddhism), avant-garde art and socio-political events of the time. The opening section focuses on abstract typograms called Typestracts (combining the words “typewriter” and “abstract”) – works created on an Olivetti 22 typewriter using blue, red, or black ink ribbons. The following section presents Laminate Poems and Cosmic Dust Poems, which Houédard started to create in about 1966. This series of poetic objects consists of small found objects of either natural or man-made materials sealed in transparent, often colored plastic film. The last section of the exhibition, situated in the library of the Broumov Monastery, is devoted to Houédard’s books and his activities with the publishing house Openings Press, which he co-founded together with John Furnival and Edward Wright in 1964 and where he was active until the late 1960s. Openings Press published a number of poems by acclaimed authors of concrete and visual poetry and their collaborators included the Czech artist Jiří Valoch, whose work for Openings Press is featured in this exhibition.
The works on display are on loan from the following London galleries: the Lisson Gallery, the Richard Saltoun Gallery and William Allen Word & Image.
The exhibition takes place on the premises of the historically unique Benedictine Monastery in Broumov, in both the monastic library and the refectory. The catalogue features texts by Monika Čejková, Nicola Simpson and Jonathan P. Watts.
The second round of the Ora et lege (Pray and Read) project will also include a series of performances following up on the exhibition The Palace of Concrete Poetry, which was held as part of the Ora et lege project at the Writers’ House of Georgia in Tbilisi (9 September – 13 October 2022). That exhibition featured the pioneers of concrete poetry and their successors from subsequent generations.
On the opening day of the Broumov exhibition, Secondary Information by Pavel Büchler and The Fragiles by Barbara Kapusta will be performed in the monastery. For the first time, selected Grammar Texts by Bohumila Grögerová and Josef Hiršal from the book of experimental texts JOB–BOJ (1960–1962) will be presented in performance, in collaboration with the director Jiří Adámek Austerlitz. At the same time, on the day of the opening there will be a lecture, “On the Radiophonic Works of Ferdinand Kriwet”, by the poet, Germanist and translator Pavel Novotný. It will focus on Ferdinand Kriwet’s composition Apollo America from 1969 and will be followed by a presentation of the work.
In the fall, as part of Prague Art Week, there will be a reprise of the performances of selected texts by Grögerová (23 September 2023) and a lecture by Novotný on Kriwet’s work (22 September 2023) at the Museum of Czech Literature. Two performances of Fight! and Speech! by the British artist Janice Kerbel in the National Gallery Prague at the Convent of Saint Agnes of Bohemia (24 September 2023) will be followed by a debate with the artist.
Dom Sylvester Houédard (1924, Guernsey – 1992, place of death unknown), born Pierre-Thomas-Paul Joseph Houédard, was a Benedictine monk, a prominent British theologian, and a concrete poet. He lived his life between a Benedictine monastery, activities within the underground counterculture, and last but not least within the queer community in the UK. His interest in a “wider ecumenism”, resulting in his openness to all religions, led him to Buddhism, which also brought him closer to the authors of the Beatnik generation, whom he befriended (in particular, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs). Houédard wrote many theological texts and shared his ideas with, for example, the Eckhart Society, the Beshara School and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. During his lifetime, however, he gained fame primarily as a leading author and theorist of concrete poetry. Houédard was educated in Rome and later studied modern history at Oxford (1942–1949, Jesus College). His studies were temporarily interrupted by his military service (1944–1947), during which he visited India (Bengaluru), Sri Lanka and Singapore. In 1949 he entered the Benedictine monastic community at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire, taking his final vows 10 years later. He wrote texts on the new spirituality in art and aesthetics, among other things, and gave lectures. In 1964, together with John Furnival and Edward Wright, he co-founded the Openings Press in Woodchester (Gloucestershire), publishing their own and other authors’ works. His works were exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions. For example, he gave solo shows at the Lisson Gallery in London (2020, 2018, 1967), the Richard Saulton Gallery in London (2017), the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle (1972) and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (1971). He also participated in many group exhibitions of concrete poetry, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts – ICA in London (Poor. Old. Tired. Horse, 2009), the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford (Concrete Poetry, 1972), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (Konkrete poezie, klankteksten, visuele teksten, 1970), the Venice Biennale (Mostra di Poesia Concreta, 1969), and the Midlant Group Gallery in Nottingham (Concrete / Spatial Poetry, 1966). His work is also represented in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, The British Council, and the Tate Collection, among others.
The exhibition is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of the Broumov Monastery tour. Admission fee to the tour: CZK 220 adults | CZK 130 students | CZK 190 senior citizens. The exhibition guide can be purchased for CZK 60.
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
Dom Sylvester Houédard, travaillant sous le vide eviter la caramelisation, 1967, vinyl plastic laminate (newspaper cutting and PVC plastic), 15 × 6 × 0.1 cm, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
Dom Sylvester Houédard, travaillant sous le vide eviter la caramelisation, 1967, vinyl plastic laminate (newspaper cutting and PVC plastic), 15 × 6 × 0.1 cm, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
Dom Sylvester Houédard, sacred puke fork for the holy popcorn, 1969, ink typed on paper, 20.2 × 22 cm, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
Dom Sylvester Houédard, Christ Vishnu, 1975, translucent reversal poem CHRIST/VISHNU, offset published by LYC Museum, Cumbria, 8.5 × 14.5 cm, courtesy of William Allen Word & Image, London
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery, courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery, courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome
Dom Sylvester Houédard, dsh for jan palach, 1969, pen on glossy card, 11 × 13 cm, courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome
Dom Sylvester Houédard, In memoriam Aldous Huxley, 1963, ink typed on paper, 10 × 16.5 cm, courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome
Dom Sylvester Houédard, 250766 (for Raoul Hausmann 65), 1966, ink typed on paper, 20.5 × 12.8 cm, courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
Dom Sylvester Houédard and Matsuo Bashō, frog pond plop, Opening No. 6, Openings Press, 1965, folding card, edition 486 of 500; design by Edward Wright, Nazli Zaki and Matilda Cheung, School of Graphics, Chelsea School of Art; printed by Shenval Press Ltd., 11.6 × 11.6 cm, courtesy of William Allen Word & Image, London
endlessly inside, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Exhibition View, Ora et lege II, Broumov Monastery
Correspondence: From John Furnival to Jiří Valoch, 25 July 1966, letter, 25.4 × 20.2 cm, Jiří Valoch Archive and Collection, Moravian Gallery in Brno. From Dom Sylvester Houédard to Jiří Valoch, 24 September 1976, letter, 29.6 × 21 cm, Jiří Valoch Archive and Collection, Moravian Gallery in Brno