untitled strip painting (I Am That I Am), Brion Gysin

Exhibition Label:
"Cryptograph: An Exhibition for Alan Turing," Mar-2012, Stephen Goddard
Brion Gysin, an experimental artist, poet and inventor of the “cut up” technique made famous by his collaborator William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), was quick to investigate the ways computing might serve the arts. Gysin had been
captivated by the Old Testament phrase “I am that I am” (God’s answer to Moses’ question about God’s name - Exodus 3:14). Noticing that the phrase lacked symmetry, Gysin observed “all I had to do was to switch the last two words and it asked a question: 'I Am That, Am I?'" In 1960, Cambridge-educated mathematician and technician Ian Somerville collaborated with Gysin by producing a computer algorithm that created and randomized all of the permutations of the five-word passage. SG

Exhibition Label:
"Brion Gysin: A Selection of Books and Works on Paper," Feb-2005, Steve Goddard and Joanna Sternberg
By the time Gysin adapted his “writing paintings” to the long scroll-like format of the “strip paintings” displayed here, his integration of hand-stamped grids and calligraphic marks reached a chant-like pitch. These works are shot through with subtle patterns and changes that are made verbally manifest in the yellow strip painting which
incorporates parts of Gysin’s poem, “I am that I am.”
In this and related poems Gysin explores the possible permutations of the words in a short phrase. “I am that I am” can be seen in the exhibited book, Brion Gysin Let The Mice In, where he explains:

The whole idea of the permutations came to me visually on seeing the so-called, Divine Tautology, in print. It looked wrong, to me, non symmetrical. The biggest word, That, belonged in the middle but all I had to do was to switch the last two words and It asked a question: ‘I Am That, Am I?”

The poem can be heard in the selection of Gysin recordings available in the gallery.