Nicholas Denton-Protsack — a long the / riverrun (2019)

“...A way a lone a last a loved a long the / riverrun past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs...”

The above passage, from James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake, was used as inspiration for my work a long the / riverrun, both conceptually and in name. In Joyce’s book, the very last passage is an incomplete sentence — “A way a lone a last a loved a long the”. At first, it seems like the book cuts off abruptly without ever finishing its final idea, but an observant reader may notice that the opening passage is in fact a fragment of a sentence as well. When welded together, the two sentences complete one another, and the entire book becomes an infinitely repeating — rather than linear — narrative. This revolutionary (pun intended) idea of Joyce’s inspired me to create a work that utilizes repetition on many levels — repeating figures, phrases, and even entire sections, until the start and end of the work are merely an aesthetic decision rather than a formal necessity. This concept, paired with the musical image of a river both violently and playfully flowing, is in essence what a long the / riverrun is meant to depict. — Nicholas Denton-Protsack