AustLit

'Biota is a neo-surrealist book with a double-theme. Neo-surreal, following John Ashbery’s conception of an unconscious and conscious, lower-case and all-inclusive surrealism. Double-themed, with Biota first as an umbrella. Biota from the (poeticised) ecological sciences: the organisms that occupy a place, habitat or time together. Marine, terrestrial, digital, living or dead. Asymmetrical / symmetrical. The second theme of Biota is its surreal translations of shrines that are connected with the traditional religion, folklore and myth of Việt Nam. Shrines are places to leave nourishment for dead souls / so they don’t fall into a deep hunger and die / a second death to be reborn as hungry ghosts– / lost souls of eternal hunger. / Of course, all shrines are pockets / and all pockets are houses. Multi-disciplinary artist and beloved friend, Daniel de Filippo makes his own surreal translations through drawings of the poem translations of the shrines – and between each is a ghost’s ephemeral shimmer. Biota is by turns political, autobiographical, travelogue, sketch book, cross-pollination and of course, an odyssey of the surreal.' (Publication summary)

'The presence of John Ashbery shines over contemporary literature, for many as an enigma, indisputably as a catalyst. Part of the post-World War II wave of new American poetry, his name is grouped not just alongside his contemporary poets but among their literary schools and movements: the L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E school, the New York School, the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beats, the Black Mountain poets, our own ’68ers and J.A.'  (Introduction)