Oberwildling: on the life of Oskar Kokoschka by Colin Herd & SJ Fowler

88 pages, available to buy: https://enemiesproject.bigcartel.com/product/kakania

A necessarily aberrant love letter to the life, art & thoughts of the great Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka, comprising of a poem for every year of his long, era spanning existence, written by the brilliant Scottish poet Colin Herd. We began writing this book while touring Scotland for the Auld Enemies project in summer 2014, coming close to Ullapool, where Kokoschka resided during the war, and our mutual passion for the iconoclastic nature of Kokoschka's works had us write in exchanged poems and missives for nine months, a human term, until the book was published as part of the Kakania project in early 2015.

The book was beautifully set by Lisa Stephanides & Stefan Kraus of Polimekanos design agency, who rendered the book with the professional care and rare eye of an artist and bookmaker, and the volume was published by the Austrian Cultural Forum, as part of their Occasions series. To Theodora Danek, and the whole team at the Austrian Cultural Forum, we owe a great debt. They have allowed our testament to an Austrian master, a true modern, find permanent form.

The book will be officially launched May 14th 2015 at the Sutton Gallery, in Edinburgh, as part of the UNESCO European Literature Night, but you can watch Colin reading from the book as part of the Kakania project below.