Janne Karlsson’s A5 fanzine-style chap LOVE’S AN INFECTION is a short collection
of illustrated poems on the theme of Love & Hurt and features seventeen
poems & eight poets from around the world. Over the last couple of years,
the Swedish artist & editor has collaborated with several, mainly North
American poets, who he has developed a huge respect and admiration for. When
Karlsson gained access to a cheap printer earlier this year, he decided to take
a shot at creating his own print poetry anthology and invited his network of
poets to contribute. LOVE’S AN INFECTION
is the result of this collaboration.
The poems are minimalistic & view love from a wide
variety of perspectives. The poetry is experimental and remarkably fresh. There
is nothing predictable or mundane here: Blood spouts in raw spasms across the
page. Bruised wailing mouths pulse like a “heartbeat of fists.”
As implied by the title LOVE’S AN INFECTION, love is seen as a disease which makes people do
& say crazy things. As shown in the poems, love can induce vomiting, self-loathing,
evoke intense hatred and acerbate irreconcilable differences &
misunderstandings between people.
(Reprinted with the publisher's permission)
I recently asked Karlsson for BM (23 October 2014) the thoughts he had when he sat down to create an illustration for a poem. He candidly commented: “I don’t really think or prepare in any way. I read the poem and pretty much draw intuitively, trying to kind of turn the poem’s feelings into ink. There’s hardly ever anything going through my mind. If I began using my brain in my drawings, the result would surely suck. Suck hard…ha ha.”
I recently asked Karlsson for BM (23 October 2014) the thoughts he had when he sat down to create an illustration for a poem. He candidly commented: “I don’t really think or prepare in any way. I read the poem and pretty much draw intuitively, trying to kind of turn the poem’s feelings into ink. There’s hardly ever anything going through my mind. If I began using my brain in my drawings, the result would surely suck. Suck hard…ha ha.”
(Reprinted with the publisher's permission)
Karlsson’s illustrations are character driven and express a raw, surreal existential anxiety which adeptly reflects the sick, fucked-up agony of modern living. His graphics? Think mad shit. Think raining blood, Zombie nudity, eyeless vomiting figures drenched in blood. Think even of cannibalistic metre-square blocks of ready-to-be-eaten breasts & vulvas. Weird but thought-provoking stuff!
Karlsson’s illustrations are character driven and express a raw, surreal existential anxiety which adeptly reflects the sick, fucked-up agony of modern living. His graphics? Think mad shit. Think raining blood, Zombie nudity, eyeless vomiting figures drenched in blood. Think even of cannibalistic metre-square blocks of ready-to-be-eaten breasts & vulvas. Weird but thought-provoking stuff!
