Brion Gysin

(Photograph by Harold Chapman, courtesy of TopFoto)

Gysin (1916-1986) had a lifelong fascination with the juncture of word and image. He studied Japanese and Arabic calligraphy, and evolved his own style of  word/image glyphs, supple as flames or tendrils of smoke. A radical cultural visionary, visual artist, writer and performer, Gysin introduced his lifelong friend, writer William S. Burroughs, to the techniques of "cut-ups" and "permutation". Together, they experimented in sound and image, using collage, tape recorder, light painting, writing and film. Their work has had a pervasive influence in the arts and on underground and popular culture, affecting figures such as David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis P. Orridge, Keith Haring, Michael Stipe, and Bill Laswell.

In the '60's, Gysin created the Dreamachine, which he described as "the only work of art designed to be seen with closed eyes" and a "drugless psychedelic experience". The Dreamachine rotates and through a flicker effect, evokes brainwaves which can produce spontaneous waking dreams. Gysin said, "...it gives an extended vision of one's own interior capacities, which could also be overwhelming." It was his point of view that those "interior capacities" are the next art form, superceding painting.

Gysin's works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Centre George Pompidou, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and numerous private collections. October Gallery first showed Gysin's work in 1981.