Dematerialize by Kayla Guthrie / Reliquary V

Dematerialize is a novel collection of sonic poetry from Canadian artist Kayla Guthrie, simultaneously presented under her pseudonym Reliquary V. The six poems that comprise Dematerialize dissolve and dissipate in tune with its intrepid narrator, whose warm, syrupy echoes of late-aughts New York are set to an electronic-laden tempo that mimics a walking pace.

These six pieces were originally conceived as artworks and displayed in emerging art galleries during Guthrie’s tenure in the New York art scene between 2008 and 2017. During this period, Guthrie experimented with personal narrative as a critical reflection on the presence and materiality of text-as-artwork, along with its performance and objectification, with influences ranging from Chris Kraus to Leslie Winer. Created in lieu of a book, Dematerialize is an exercise in music production as formatting and kaleidoscopic guise, drawing a through-line from Guthrie’s early performance and writing works to her current experiments in instrumental sample and percussion-based electronic music under the name Reliquary V. Dematerialize illustrates the full scope of Guthrie’s artistic identity, offering a concise summation of her roots in both fine arts, underground culture, and professional authorship.

In line with Guthrie’s diffused identities, each piece explores personas both androgynous and disembodied, expanding and contracting harmoniously. The album takes its title from a line in the opening piece “Signal” — “I recoil, soften, dematerialize / my appearance / translated as signal, proof, and sign.” The track itself is an invocation of beloved Bushwick gallery SIGNAL, where the poem was displayed during the 2015 group exhibition Fissure : Fog curated by Bennet Schlesinger. Similarly, “U.S. Blues” pays tribute to the eponymous gallery formerly located at the mouth of Greenpoint’s Newtown Creek. Both galleries have since shuttered; their stars burning bright and hot in advance of their demise. Under Guthrie’s direction, her authored text is dissolved and reconstituted through sound — an alchemistic ritual of space that, like text itself, knows no firm boundaries.

Digital bonus track “Poison Pen” offers an instrumental and airy contrast to the tightly woven poetry that precedes it. Conceived as a mixtape that shifts through different moods and motifs, “Poison Pen” stays unresolved, instead harnessing the malefic power of words to conjure, enchant, and disguise. Just as the alchemist transmutes chaos to precious metal, “Poison Pen” is a reminder that just the smallest bite of poison can be the antidote.

Kayla Guthrie (b. 1986, Calgary, Alberta) got her start with a practice that situated itself on the margins of the commercial art mecca of late-aughts New York: playing live at gallery after-parties, composing press releases as conceptual pieces, and exhibiting text-driven artworks that proffered the immaterial presence of a writerly voice. She completed her first EP, Blue, in 2015, followed by a release show at Greene Naftali and a string of performances in Europe, including Sandy Brown in Berlin, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and Elektro Müller, the former site of Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang Studios. In 2018, Guthrie released the Falling Star EP on Cammisa Buerhaus’ Wild Flesh Productions, and toured on a double bill with avant-garde multi-instrumentalist Eve Essex. Clairvoyance, her most recent solo project under the name Reliquary V, was released in 2020 on NYC’s AmbrosiA label.

Dematerialize is available in limited edition cassette and unlimited digital formats on December 10, 2021, complemented by photography from Lili Emtiaz and accompanied by a customized pink pen — poison not included.

Soap Library is a holistic cassette tape label in New York City.

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