Mystic writing pad 1-9 [20180520 drawing, 1000mm x 1000mm]
Posted on by Stephen J. Williams

Mystic writing pad

Note:  Sigmund Freud, ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925)
  • Mystic writing pad 10 (graphite and oil pastel, 178mm x 254mm, 20220415) Stephen J. Williams
  • Mystic writing pad 1 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams.
  • Mystic writing pad 2 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams.
  • Mystic writing pad 3 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams.
  • Mystic writing pad 4 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Since Jerusalem’ by Stephen J. Williams; and Sigmund Freud’s ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925).
  • Mystic writing pad 5 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates [most there is just this] and ‘Sr Pessoa’, both poems by Stephen J. Williams; and Sigmund Freud’s ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925). Published in Pink Cover Zine No.3, November 2018.
  • Mystic writing pad 6 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates Sigmund Freud’s ‘A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925); ‘Uncle Stranger’ by Stephen J. Williams (which is a version of a diary kept by Trevor Williams); and [There lies Peter Clutterbuck now], a poem by Stephen J. Williams.
  • Mystic writing pad 7 [20171212 drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates excerpts of a diary by Trevor Williams; and ‘Transposition in the words of James Baldwin’ by Stephen J. Williams, which is a transposition in words spoken by James Baldwin. This drawing was published in Rabbit Poetry—a journal for non-fiction poetry (RMIT University, April 2018).
  • Mystic writing pad 8 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Uncle Stranger’ by Stephen J. Williams (which is a version of a diary kept by Trevor Williams); and a version of another drawing, ‘Detail of Decay’ (a study of an Adolf von Hildebrand statue, by Stephen J. Williams.
  • Mystic writing pad 1–5
  • Mystic writing pad 9 [drawing, 297mm x 297mm] incorporates ‘Uncle Stranger’ by Stephen J. Williams (which is a version of a diary kept by Trevor Williams); and ‘Exposed’, a poem by Stephen J. Williams.
This work takes its title from the 1925 essay by Sigmund Freud, ‘A note upon the mystic writing-pad’, in which he posits that the system of perception and consciousness appears to be strikingly similar to a graphic arts toy called a ‘mystic writing-pad’. The ongoing work exploits this metaphorical understanding of consciousness in a still-growing series of ‘drawings-as-writing’ or ‘writing-as-drawing’. The images reproduce key texts of personal writing, relevant influential authors and ‘voices’ from the past… diaries, biographical essays, Freud, James Baldwin and others. This work uses writing and imagery to interrogate ideas of a fictionalised self that is subject to the influence of culture.
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