Martin Rieser was visiting Professor in the Digital Cultures Research Centre at the University of the West of England until 2017. He was  employed by De Montfort University at The Institute of Creative Technologies as Professor of Digital Creativity 2007-2013, he was Professor of Digital Arts and Senior Teaching Fellow at Bath Spa University 2000-2007, was Principal Lecturer in Digital Media at Napier University in Edinburgh at the Department of Photography, Film, and Television 1997-2000. In post as Senior Lecturer in Electronic Media at UWE Bristol between 1986 – 1998 He set up one of the first post-graduate courses in the country in Digital Art and Imaging at the City of London Polytechnic, now London Metropolitan University 1980-85. He studied Printmaking at Goldsmith’s and Atelier 17 with S.W Hayter. Further biographical details are available at www.martinrieser.com

 

Girl with a white Dog

Lucian Freud 1951

 

The man has a cruel eye for truth.

Kitty is as wretched as she has ever been,

her tender breast offered equally

to her future child and to the artist.

 

The dog knows nothing,

snoozing faithful in her lap.

 

Her hand protects from his gaze’s violation;

she can scent the other women on his skin,

at night,  when he gathers her remains

under the sheets and inflicts more damage.

 

 

© Martin Rieser

 

Two Cats

Suzanne Valadon 1918

 

My two cats are not happy.

They sit all day lost on the table,

shell-shocked soldiers

paws tucked in by their white chests.

 

From here the shelling is a distant rumble,

although the mice are scratching

their ears will only bend

towards the terrible concussions.

 

I too am ignored, as surplus to the time,

so I sit and paint their situation

with all the colours of my grief.

 

© Martin Rieser

 

Garden Path with Chickens

Gustav Klimt 1917

 

This war drags on,

which is why my refuge

between the pansies and hollyhocks

is so dear to me, and why

the ivy-swathed summer house

is where I sit out these last days

here between life and death,

expecting old times to return

when this cauchemar is over,

but knowing that the chickens

will come home to roost

and nothing now can ever mend.

 

© Martin Rieser

Tiger in a Tropical Storm

Henri Rousseau 1891

 

Messieurs c’est une vraie crise:

the stage machinery blowing sideways.

All my meticulously rendered plants

flying eastwards in a wild wind.

 

The stage-tiger is wide-eyed

clawing at the furniture

just to stay alive, to stay

where the artist has decreed

he must abide this storm.

 

Il est tout une noble patience

et sauvagerie fixe,

une mâchoire ouverte de crocs terribles,

but, like us all, forever

complaining of the weather.

 

© Martin Rieser

l’Homme au Chapeau Melon

Rene Magritte 1965

 

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance

but sometimes freedom flies by very fast

and sometimes it blocks out the future

with a rush of white feathers

 

Je vous prie d’être assuré que

le mirage est aussi réel que ton chapeau

et ton costume parfait

si incomparable et sans plis!

 

© Martin Rieser