Michael Dean

A book of kisses. Michael Dean smote a tender, elegiac, angry and funny poem that speaks of that which remains when love is gone. It resonates with anguish and ire, but here and there the language slips, as if misheard through a distance.

‘Stardust Melody’ by Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish read wonky through tearful eyes on heartbreak for fuck sake. A lyric rewritten with a lippy anonymity of happy sadness. A smooch of a stylus to possess but swift as cursive kisses. Physical as mist. So similar in description to the missed, kissed.

Here’s Stardust Malady x

After writing Stardust Melody, Michael painted his lips black and kissed the entire poem away. He transcribed each word with his kiss so that they could not be read anymore: the text disappeared, its language transformed into a physical syntax of love and loss. But the text returns, you’ll find it on a ripped page slipped inside the book.

Once the books were printed Michael painted his lips black again, and instead of signing each copy he kissed each away.

Stardust Malady is printed on Arena Smooth paper using five different inks, including a ‘deep space black’, bound with an open spine and covered with a loose jacket. We are very proud of it. You cannot tell the difference between the printed kisses and the actual one on the inside back cover.

Michael Dean is represented by Herald St, London; Andrew Kreps, New York; Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brussels, Paris and New York; Barakat Contemporary, Seoul.

Read

Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish, ‘Stardust Melody’ (1927)