Alex Caldiero
Encyclopedia
Alex Caldiero is a poet, polyartist, sonosopher, and scholar of humanities and intermedia
.
, near Catania
, Sicily
, in 1949, Alex immigrated to the United States at age nine and was raised in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. He attended Queens College
in Flushing
, New York, and was apprenticed to the sculptor Michael Lekakis and the poet-bard Ignazio Buttitta
. Caldiero has traveled through Sicily, Sardinia, Turkey, and Greece collecting proverbs, tales, and folk instruments. He is co-founder of Arba Sicula
, the society for the preservation of the Sicilian language
and traditions, and is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
, Utah Performing Arts Tour, and the Best Poetry Award from the Association for Mormon Letters
. Caldiero has lived in Utah
since 1980 with his wife and children, and is Poet/Artist in Residence at Utah Valley University.
Caldiero's work has been reviewed by Village Voice and The New York Times
and he is included in "A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes" on page 104 http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415937647&id=NZX85xdr6boC&pg=RA3-PA1&lpg=RA3-PA1&ots=VcXgcfFHi1&dq=Dictionary+of+the+Avant+garde&sig=pTnyY3Ktvs9UT44iBnCa5Mx2vzs#PRA25-PA104,M1.
http://research.uvsc.edu/abbott/Publications/Afterthetreehadfallen.htm
for Social Research, the Pritchard Art Gallery, the Salt Lake Art Center, Utah Valley University, the Kiva Koffeehouse
in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
, and on Brazilian TV.
His notable performance of Ginsberg's
Howl
on the 50th Anniversary its first reading drew a record poetry crowd at a local book store.
Recently, Caldiero has performed together with various members of Theta Naught http://www.flickr.com/photos/wickenden/405129071/, an ensemble that describes their music as "Psychodelicious Music". Alex intones his poetry while the band plays.
Intermedia
Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres that became prevalent in the 1960s. Thus, the areas such as those between drawing and poetry, or between painting...
.
Life
Born in the ancient town of Licodia EubeaLicodia Eubea
Licodia Eubea is a town and comune in the province of Catania, on the island of Sicily. It is bounded by the comuni of Caltagirone, Chiaramonte Gulfi, Giarratana, Grammichele, Mazzarrone, Mineo, Monterosso Almo and Vizzini...
, near Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, in 1949, Alex immigrated to the United States at age nine and was raised in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. He attended Queens College
Queens College, City University of New York
Queens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York. It is also the fifth oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning. The college's seventy seven acre campus is located in the heart of the...
in Flushing
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...
, New York, and was apprenticed to the sculptor Michael Lekakis and the poet-bard Ignazio Buttitta
Ignazio Buttitta
Ignazio Buttitta was a Sicilian dialectal poet.-Biography:Born at Bagheria into a poor family, after having taken part in World War I Buttitta joined the Italian Socialist Party and around this time started to write poetry in Sicilian. His first volume of poetry published was Sintimintali ,...
. Caldiero has traveled through Sicily, Sardinia, Turkey, and Greece collecting proverbs, tales, and folk instruments. He is co-founder of Arba Sicula
Arba Sicula
Arba Sicula is a not-for-profit international society whose main objective is the preservation and promotion of the Sicilian language and culture. Its administration is located in New York, USA...
, the society for the preservation of the Sicilian language
Sicilian language
Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...
and traditions, and is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, Utah Performing Arts Tour, and the Best Poetry Award from the Association for Mormon Letters
Association for Mormon Letters
The Association for Mormon Letters is a nonprofit founded in 1976 to promote quality writing "by, for, and about Mormons." The broadness of this definition of Mormon literature has led the AML to focus on a wide variety of work that has sometimes been neglected in the Mormon community...
. Caldiero has lived in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
since 1980 with his wife and children, and is Poet/Artist in Residence at Utah Valley University.
Caldiero's work has been reviewed by Village Voice and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and he is included in "A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes" on page 104 http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415937647&id=NZX85xdr6boC&pg=RA3-PA1&lpg=RA3-PA1&ots=VcXgcfFHi1&dq=Dictionary+of+the+Avant+garde&sig=pTnyY3Ktvs9UT44iBnCa5Mx2vzs#PRA25-PA104,M1.
Books
- MONAD. Clown War broadside, NYC, 1974.
- FROM STONE TO STAR. Incurve Press, NYC, 1977.
- LU LATTI DI LA MATRI/The Milk of the Mother. CSSSS, Catania, Sicily, 1980.
- OR, BOOK O' LIGHTS. Limited edition, artist book, 1993.
- Various Atmospheres. Signature BooksSignature BooksSignature Books is a press specializing in subjects related to Utah, Mormonism, and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D...
, SLC, UT, 1998 - ILLEGIBLE TATTOOS. Limited edition, letter press artist book. Meyer & Liechty, Lindon, UT. 1999.
- AH-BH-GH. Limited edition, letter press artist book. Kinde Nebeker, Salt Lake City, UT. 1999.
- BODY/DREAMS/ORGANS. Elik Press. SLC. 2005
Anthologies
- TEXT-SOUND TEXTS, Richard Kostelanetz, ed., Morrow, NY, 1980. ISBN 0-688-03616-3 pp. 412-417
- ASSEMBLING ANTHOLOGY, Richard Kostelanetz, ed., NYC.
- UTAH: STATE OF THE ARTS, Trudy McMurrin, ed., Meridian International, Ogden, UT, 1993.
- DICTIONARY OF THE AVANT-GARDES, Richard Kostelanetz, ed., Routhledge, London/NY. 2001.
Literary Magazines
- Clown War (Clwn Wr), Gyro, Flute, Hand Book, Arte e Folklore di Sicilia, Maledicta, Arba Sicula Review,
- Screens & Tasted Parallels, Poor Roberts Almanac, Canyon Echo.
Exhibitions / Exhibition Catalogs
- LOST & FOUND: An Archeological Composition. Salt Lake Art Center, SLC, UT, 1987.
- DREAMS & SHIELDS: Spiritual Dimensions in Contemporary Art. Salt Lake Art Center, SLC, UT, 1992.
- THE UNCLOSED HAND. Community Press, SLC, UT, 1994.
- PERFORMING THE BOOK: Caldiero's The Food that Fits the Hunger. SLC, UT.1995. http://research.uvsc.edu/abbott/Publications/Performing%20the%20Book%20Alex%20Caldiero.htm
- WESTWARD BOUND: An Exhibition Celebrating Book Arts in the West.
- Mariott Library, University of Utah, SLC, UT. 2000.
- AFTER THE TREE HAD FALLEN: Recent works and collaborations. Alex Caldiero & Frank McIntyre. Limited edition catalog. Marshall Studios.2003. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,510055430,00.html
http://research.uvsc.edu/abbott/Publications/Afterthetreehadfallen.htm
Performances
Alex Caldiero has performed at the Utah Arts Festival, several times on National Public Radio http://hearingvoices.com/stories.php?fID=45&fidType=producer,http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1853243, on the Poetry Bus Tour in 2006, at The New SchoolThe New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
for Social Research, the Pritchard Art Gallery, the Salt Lake Art Center, Utah Valley University, the Kiva Koffeehouse
Kiva Koffeehouse
The Kiva Koffeehouse is a restaurant and inn located in the Canyons of the Escalante within the of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the United States....
in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument contains 1.9 million acres of land in southern Utah, the United States. There are three main regions: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante. President Bill Clinton designated the area as a U.S. National...
, and on Brazilian TV.
His notable performance of Ginsberg's
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
Howl
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
on the 50th Anniversary its first reading drew a record poetry crowd at a local book store.
Recently, Caldiero has performed together with various members of Theta Naught http://www.flickr.com/photos/wickenden/405129071/, an ensemble that describes their music as "Psychodelicious Music". Alex intones his poetry while the band plays.
Selected Performative Works
Legend: ^ solo or multi-performers; {collaborations; [site specific- INVITATION TO MULTIPLICITY: Performance in multimedia installation. Salt Lake Art Center, SLC, UT, 1987.^
- RED ROCKS TALK: Participations in environment as re-creation area. Coyote Gulch, Utah wilderness, 1988.[
- IN TWO SEAS: Language performance/dance.Utah Academy of Arts & Letters. University of Utah, SLC, 1992.^
- HUNGER FOR AN UNKNOWN FOOD: Language performance. Brigham Young University Performing Arts Series. Madsen Recital Hall, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 1992.^
- DAY IS DONE: Children's radio. Language/sound explorations. KRCL in SLC, UT, 1993-1995.{
- FRAGILE ECOLOGIES: Contemporary Artists' Interpretations & Solutions. Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Series (SITES). Transenvironmental performance. Salt Lake Art Center, SLC, UT, 1993.[
- CONFESSIONS. Dance/word collaborations. The Space for Dance, Boulder, Colorado, 1993.{
- IN WINDS OF SAND. Voice/drum soundtrack, w/dance by Maida Withers & mixed-media sculpture by Maria Theresa Fernandes. Marvin Center Theater, Washington, D.C., 1993.{, [
- OUTSIDE DANCE. Dance/music/word collaborations. Performance in the Wasatch landscape. SLC, 1995/96.{,[
- HOWL: 40th anniversary performance of Ginsberg=s Howl. Left Bank Gallery, SLC, Oct.,1995.^,{
- CHARMING THE ANTELOPES. Transenvironmental performance w/ICEBURN Collective and improvised installations by Scott Carrier. Puddle Valley, west desert, UT, 1996.{,[
- A POETRY SWEAT. Text/language act. Feature performance at Utah Arts Festival, SLC, 1997.^
- SPHOTA PROBE. Language act w/installation AEncountering Energy@ by Trent Alvey. Art Barn, SLC, UT.1998.^,{
- BONES & LOVE POEMS. Text-performance w/installation by the same name as part of ALove in Hell@ Contemporary Artists Reflect on Orpheus and Eurydice. Salt Lake Art Center. 2000.^
- SQUAT. Language act. The Proving Ground concert series. Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC. 2000.^
- JUST BEFORE SUNSET. Transenvironmental performance. Antelope Island, UT. 2002.^,[
- WORDS FOR WORDS. Language Act. Cordell Taylor Gallery. Denver, CO. 2002.^
- SAID Z. Language act w/installation of visual responses by Alex Bigney. Stewart Gallery, Boise, ID. 2002, and at the Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT. 2003.^,{
- INTERPLAY: Intransitive Senses. Telematic cinema performance produce by Another Language Performing Arts Company. Computer/word/music/dance collaboration. Directed by Jimmy Miklavic and performed with Elizabeth Miklavcic, Hanelle Miklavcic; Harold Carr, Flavia Cervino-Wood, Kate Macleod and Sam Liston. University of Utah Intermountain Networking & Scientific Computation Center. Salt Lake City, UT. 2003.^,{
- BETWEEN FOLKLORE AND AVANT-GARDE: Touring Performance/lecture. Gruppo Folk ACampidano@ di Quartucciu e Comune di Quartucciu, presso Casa Angioni, Quartucciu, Sardegna; Circolo Culturale AGiacomo Giardinia@ e L=Unitre. Bagheria, Sicilia; Centro Studi Storico-Sociali Siciliani e Circolo Unificato Ufficiale e Sottufficiali, Catania, Sicilia. 2003.^
- SPHOTA PROBE (Take 2). The 9th Improvisation Festival. With choreography/dance by Maida Withers and music ensemble. George Washington University, Washington DC. 2003.{
- LIGHT FROM A DIFFERENT SUN: Sicilian Language Poetry Recital. Utah Valley State College, Orem, UT.2004.^
- A YEAR FROM LATER: Recent Works & Quirks. Ken Sanders Rare Books, SLC. 2003 and Utah State University, Logan, UT. 2004.^
- HOWL BY ALLEN GINSBERG. 50th anniversary performance. Great Salt Lake Book Festival. SLC. 2005.^
- THE BEAT GENERATION AND THE POWER OF EXPRESSION: O.C. Tanner Symposium. Featuring “Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle,” a traveling exhibit, including readings/performances by Alex Caldiero, Bill Berkson, Michael McClure, David Meltzer, & Ann Waldman. Utah State University, Logan, UT. 2006.^
- ITALIAN POETS, PAST & PRESENT. Sonosophical recitations from Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarca, da Lentini, Leopardi, Ungaretti, Quasimodo, F.T. Marinetti, & Antonio Porta. Italian Center of the West, SLC, UT. 2006.^
Films and Documentaries
- Plan 10 from Outer SpacePlan 10 from Outer SpacePlan 10 from Outer Space is a low budget science fiction film starring Karen Black and written and directed by Trent Harris. The film is a surreal satire of Mormon theology. The film has no connection to Plan 9 from Outer Space other than its title....
(1994, Trent HarrisTrent HarrisTrent Harris is an independent filmmaker based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He wrote and directed the offbeat 1991 comedy Rubin and Ed, in which Crispin Glover and Howard Hesseman wander the desert looking for a suitable place to bury a frozen cat. In 2001 he released The Beaver Trilogy, a...
) - Chloes Blanket 1996, (Lory Smith)
- This Divided StateThis Divided StateThis Divided State is a documentary by first-time filmmaker Steven Greenstreet that details the conflict that erupted at Utah Valley State College , when controversial figure Michael Moore was scheduled to come speak on campus, shortly before the 2004 presidential election.- Synopsis :In September...
2005, (Steven GreenstreetSteven GreenstreetSteven Greenstreet is an American documentary filmmaker, known for the controversial film, 8: The Mormon Proposition, which was selected to premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival...
) - The Mormons Part I 2007 (PBS documentary)
- The Sonosopher: Alex Caldiero in Life...in Sound (2010, Torben Bernhard and Travis Low))
Videotapes
- SANDSCYCLES, Meditation video (sound track/performance). With choreography and Earth Spirit Process by Maida Rust Withers. Produced by Verabel Cluff, 1992.
- THE JOURNEY TWO STEPS LONG: Language Performance Works. Produced by Brandon Kiggins, University of Utah, 1993.
- WORDS: EXTERIOR/INTERIOR. Language Acts. Produced by Steve W. Olpin. 1999.
Audio Tapes / CDs
- DREAM TRACTS: A Transenvironmental performance. Audiotape. Produced by Scott Carrier, 1992.
- ENSPHERED: transenvironment1. Audiotape. Produced by Scott Carrier. 1993.
- ILLEGIBLE TATTOOS. Words/voice/drum. CD. Produced and performed by Alex Caldiero. 1998.
- SPHOTA PROBE. Sonosophical/text works. CD. Produced by Mike Collins. 1999.
- PIECES IN PLACES: Transenvironmental performances. CD. 2002.
- From SOUND MIND: Acts of Language. CD. 2003.
- SOUND WEAVE. Word-music album w/ music by Theta Nought. CD. Differential Records. 2006. http://www.scenepointblank.com/reviews/985
- NA LACRIMA: Audiofile - http://www.csssstrinakria.org/Nalacrima.mp3