percival alexander

‘Life begins on the other side of despair.’ ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

My visual art has always leaned towards the sublime and formalist – be it Romanticism’s imaginative relationship with nature, Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious (notable in Abstract Expressionism), Kandinsky’s notion of the spiritual in art or Eastern philosophical musings about connectedness. Such themes continue to inform my work, but somewhere along the line I began writing and the despair just poured out, often with the mouth of a sailor! I think I get that from my father who was a builder, for they tend to have a similar command of the King’s English. I decided to harness such disillusioned gloom and channel it which culminated in my first novel, Adrift in Amnesia, and book of poetry, The Cycle Diaries (samples below – I expand on the literary influences behind each book in the introductions). Other pieces take the form of short stories, poetry and sweary prose poems taking literary cues less from the lofty ideals of Romanticism and more from the unapologetic, dynamite anger of punk and hip-hop, alongside anti-establishment comedians like Bill Hicks and George Carlin, which evolved largely from my earlier paintings on plasterboard. Despite poetry and storytelling seeming somewhat anachronistic in a boringly stagnant culture of social media influencers, podcasts and iPhones (apparently, no one reads anymore), I live in hope that people will eventually tire of a terminally online world and pick up a book instead. I have started work on a new novel, a fairy tale adventure involving two lovable cats in search of a new home, and may share some posts of its development later in the year.

adrift in amnesia (extracts of chapters 1–4)

adrift in amnesia: introduction to a daydreamer

adrift in amnesia, chapter one – aurea spiralis

adrift in amnesia, chapter two – chelmswood

adrift in amnesia, chapter three – reading, 1991

adrift in amnesia, chapter four – breakdown

paperback and Kindle editions available to purchase here.

the cycle diaries (extracts)

introduction

canto i

canto iv

canto xi