Kit Schluter
Kit Schluter is author of Pierrot’s Fingernails (Canarium Books). Among his recent and forthcoming translations are Rafael Bernal’s His Name Was Death (New Directions), Copi’s The Queens’ Ball (Inpatient Press), and Bruno Darío’s Lantana trilogy (Ugly Duckling Presse). He lives in Mexico City.
Kit Schluter on Joe Brainard
I got to thinking about all of this recently when I saw a certain Joe Brainard painting of a white dog laid out rather elegantly on a green couch. I was immediately drawn in by Brainard’s tangibly affectionate disposition toward his model. The artist’s attempt to render his model faithfully, as if genuinely inspired by the dog’s beauty, the peculiarity of its form, stood in contrast to everything I’d seen by Brainard up to that point—work I enjoy quite a bit, as well, but which is defined instead by cartoonish play, pen-and-ink spunk. This wasn’t Brainard being Brainard in solitude; it was Brainard really listening to, seeking contact with, the dog—meeting the animal halfway.
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By Kit SchluterKit Schluter is a poet & translator living in Mexico City, where he co-curates the monthly poetry series at the independent arts library Aeromoto. Writings of his have appeared in BOMB, Boston Review, Folder, Hyperallergic, and NYTyrant. His published and forthcoming translations include books by Amandine André, Anne Kawala, Jaime Saenz, Michel Surya, Olivia Tapiero, and 3 short-story collections by Marcel Schwob. Recent collections of stories include 5 Cartoonsand The Good in Having a Nuclear Family, in which two of these texts were originally published. More at www.kitschluter.com.
