Matthew Hamblin
My talk will focus on Swedish artist, poet, ‘fervent antimilitarist’ and 'radical pacifist' Åke Hodell, specifically his text-sound experiments in which he broke down and subverted the language of the military. Hodell initially devised the technique of an aesthetic rendering of the dehumanising agency of militaristic and technological language during a two-year period spent convalescing from injuries sustained after crashing his plane during World War II.
I will argue that it was not only Hodell’s literal take on 'art of demilitarisation' that takes the project further than John Cage (who claimed to have come up with the idea), but also the incorporation of critiques of nationalism, the Swedish national curriculum, masculine subjectivity and technological warfare – which could veer from humorous to devastating – into his non-syntactical sound pieces. In order to make this argument I will close-read four of Hodell’s artworks: Lågsniff (1963), CA 36715 (J) (1966), igevär (1963), and General Bussig (1964).
Matthew Hamblin recently completed a PhD in Art History and Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham.
University of Nottingham Lakeside Arts Centre Nottingham, NG7 2RD