Hannes Schupbach & Stephen Watts: Explosion of Words

A multimedia installation meditating on the lived spaces of a legendary London poet

In this two-volume publication, Swiss filmmaker Hannes Schupbach (born 1965) responds to the lived spaces of the London-based poet and translator Stephen Watts (born 1952), described by writer Iain Sinclair as a living ghost liberated from Sebald’s fiction and granted a richly posthumous existence, as he continues to bear witness to the truth. The eponymous exhibition, a cinematographic photo installation extending frieze-like over 78 feet on view at Nunnery Gallery, Bow Arts (London), is chronicled in the first volume, and a selection of Watts’ poetry, translated by Schupbach into German, comprises the second. Underlaid with fragments of poetry from Watts’ Ancient Sunlight, the 24 snapshots that make up Schupbach’s frieze document the author’s everyday life while also highlighting the intimacy of Watts’ home as a space of making. Punctuated by translator Jo Catling’s essay, this project brings together the art of poetry, translation and photography to create a cosmos of creation dedicated to Watts’ 40-year oeuvre.