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An exhibition of collages, diagrams and other works by Jimmy Raskin was shown at NYEHUAS in conjunction with the publication of his book, The Prologue, The Poltergeist & The Hollow Tree....
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Combining text with drawings, collages and a series of stunning diagrams, Jimmy Raskin's highly original book investigates the figures of the Poet and his counterpart, the Philosopher, and proceeds to anatomize their delicate relationship on the path to the Overman. Raskin's interest in the existential condition of the Poet as a metaphor for the artist in general confronts the modern Philosopher's quest to become Poet. The book manifests the stakes of this problematic merging and rigorously traces the thin line separating these two fundamental forms of Being. "The Poet's madness was something I had to salvage," says Raskin, "for the Unknown is only possible when distance collapses."
Today the Overman has been turned into a process, a mere method, so it is the Poet's failure that we need to learn more about. Identifying the precise location of this failure is the ultimate aim of this lyrical text, which mourns the fact that the Poet does not survive any longer without the Philosopher. And one of the problems of the Philosopher, as Zarathustra finds out in the prologue, is that he initially fails to entertain his audience.
The culmination point of a series of by now legendary lecture-performances unveiling the progress of his research over the past ten years, this event allowed the author to discuss the key moments of his book in its final shape and reveal some of its most vivid pages on a large screen.