backwash
Tyza Stewart
For Making Art Work Tyza Stewart has produced poems and drawings reflecting on public space, interpersonal interactions specific to pandemic restrictions, and reconsidering ways of thinking.
Thoughts stutter, loop, butt up against each other in unexpected ways, allowing space for radical envisioning. These poems document personal experiences, processes of introspection and outward observation, drawing on research many of us have undertaken during this time; on gender, prison abolition, capitalism, and alternate ways of moving in the world.
These poems “contemplate tiny affections, gender irrelevance, selves and interactions continually shifting meaning, attention moving in and out of myself, body knowledge, slowness, unprofitability, care, interconnection, unlearning, perspectives.”—Tyza Stewart, 2020
This work has been collated into a zine, available for free at IMA Belltower until 19 December 2020.
tried thinking, what does ______ do. what use is ______? came up with that it does ______ (its function is)
and so tried think how can __ keep that but rid ______ system ___e/__e (gender roles?)
but actually is that important, do i even need ____, does anyone
a set of norms, way of organising [commodities]
cisgender and transgender are the same in that ummmmmmmmm they r both gender.
So my art basically just trying explain (to myself and ______) how I experience _____. how I do not experience ________
Art that ______ glimpses of people understanding ____ selfs without _____, or irrespective of________
does thinking gender as __________ and ongoing ______ (rather than static ______, or proclamate I am this) allow experiences gender irrelevant. Does expand into ways understanding ____ (or ways of ____) that have nothing to do ______?
like let it off ___ ______
I dont know __ articulate my ________ words.
____ really know how articulate ____ images (because i don't ____ how to imagine it myself, ___
because i cant know how ___ images interpreted other people)
dis_____ with other people thinking that i have _____.
but i don't know that i don't have ______.
I don’t know ____ it is. i don't need to know ____ for myself. other ___/ systems/ etc ask (______)
to __ _____.
regret how many times said the ______ word.
how can ______ be concept______ that ___ is optional. (functionally theoretically)
Nothing is ____ but also that what is not real can have really effects and __ functionally real, because ____ popularly accepted as ____.
for illegibility to ______ to be comprehendible (or not _______, but possible, or like how I don't understand some people have / are a _____ but I believe them)
Make an art ______ that embodies _____ of gender, as I ________ it.
[Make an art _____ nature of which reflects nature of ______ as I ________ it.]
ask what is the function of ______. a way of understanding ourselves __ __ interactions ___ ____ ______.
a system of categorisation, of organising and controlling people; creating ____ maintaining
hierarchies, _____ imbalances, social norms.
Where are ways ___ understanding self and interactions ____ _____ ______ _______ irrelevant
Poltergeist-tongue birds scream, work playground night shift
thick-knee herd keeps wide berth wide eyes glaring in mine.
Soft penises jostle joggers’ thighs vying compressed sand track.
Slink ‘cross floodlit path sound of engine pressed down river.
Give lean-leg herd wide berth sweaty eyes glancing. Alone
collude with unlit platform floating. Roosting ducks
shamble across my path soft thud footstep pressed down ramp.
Public transport catamaran incites waves of waves. Waves
collide with unlit platform floating. Restless ducks
fly. Pontoon jerks, pitches pylon to ramp water ricochet.
Public transport catamaran passes waves of waves. Waves
press riverbanks apart. Sky warps glimmers in deep black wash.
Flying pontoon jerks pitches pylon to ramp. Water ricochet
rolls legs in light marine carpet chafe. Fingers fold in
press riverbanks apart. Sky warps glimmers in deep backwash.
Body turns on itself
rolls legs in light, chafing marine carpet, fingers fold in.
Poltergeist tongues work play around. Birds scream. Night shifts
body turns itself on
soft warm parts jostling thighs vying compressed traction.
Tyza Stewart, backwash, 2020, poetry, drawings, and zine.
Tyza Stewart’s self-portraits extend from ungraspable and indefinable experiences of personhood. Working in video, sculpture, painting, and poetry, Stewart held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Brisbane, the Institute of Modern Art and Boxcopy in Brisbane, FirstDraft in Sydney, and Gympie Regional Art Gallery. Their work has featured at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Neon Parc, Incinerator Gallery, and West Space in Melbourne; Gallery of Modern Art, Griffith University Art Museum, UQ Art Museum, QUT Art Museum, Metro Arts, Stable, and Outer Space in Brisbane; Carriageworks, Darren Knight Gallery, and Verge Gallery in Sydney; and Artspace's online platform 52Actions.