Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven at Swan Day, Staten Island, Etg Book Cafe, March 24, 2017 with Viv de Dada and Mary Campbell
Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven born Else Hildegard Plötz in Swinemünde (Świnoujście), in Pomerania, Germany
APPALLING HEART 1920
City stir——wind on eardrum——
dancewind : herbstained——
flowerstained——silken——rustling——
tripping——swishing——frolicking——
courtesing——careening——brushing——
flowing——lying down——bending——
teasing——kissing : treearms——grass——
limbs——lips.
City stir on eardrum—— .
In night lonely
peers—— :
moon——riding !
pale——with beauty aghast——
too exalted to share !
She was an early female pioneer of sound poetry, but also made creative use of the dash, while many of her portmanteau compositions, such as “Kissambushed” and “Phalluspistol,” present miniature poems.
X – RAY 1927
Nature causes brass to oxidize
People to congest –
By dull-radiopenetrated soil
Destined
Cosmic hand’s dynamic gang
Polish –
Kill –
For fastidioius
Brilliant boss’ “idee fixe “
Sum total :
Radiance
In New York, the Baroness also worked on assemblage sculptures and paintings, creating art out of the rubbish and refuse she collected from the streets. The Baroness was known to construct elaborate costumes from found objects, creating a “kind of living collage” that erased the boundaries between life and art.
CHRIST – DON QUIXOTE – ST. GEORGE 1927
HOW CAME IDEAL OF PERFECTION – CONCEPTION OF CHIVALRY –
DEFYING ACTIVE DYNAMO ‘SSLASHING WING – INTO CHRIST – DON QUIXIOTE – ST. GEORGE?
BY ELEMENT SCALED DRAGON’S SPIRITUAL WISDOM’S BEAUTY FORECAST –
UNATTAINABLE IN THIS DIMENSION.
GOD IS LARVAE.
SPIRIT LORD CHRIST DISCIPLES MARTYRS – ARE DRAGON’S DOMINANT BOWEL’S
DIGESTION LIFECOMPROMISE TO
BEHEMOTH FOOD.
The Baroness may have been involved in the creation of Marcel Duchamp’s famous ready-made, Fountain (1917). Duchamp indicated in a letter to his sister Suzanne, written in 1917, that a female friend of his had sent him the urinal for submission to Society of Independent Artists Exhibition: “Une de mes amies sous un pseudonyme masculin, Richard Mutt, avait envoyé une pissotière en porcelaine comme sculpture” (“One of my female friends, who had adopted the male pseudonym, Richard Mutt, sent me a porcelain urinal as a sculpture)
Thank you Swan Day for supporting and highlighting work by Women Artists
