Still

still is about alienated interiority. It begins with a body, with materiality that slowly morphs, extends, spills, and oozes non-linearity. A self-withdrawn, hidden presence: silent inactivity, affective and extractive capitalism, surveillance and commodification of behaviour, non-participation, withdrawn complicity, non-subjectivity and refusing a gaze, paralysis in time of crisis, what non-doing does. still proposes an alternative to action, a way to un-be or to cease, a way to be the wrench in the cogs of the machine, a way to jam the signal by refusing receptivity. This book disclaims language, writes without writing, divests in itself, is non-living for unlife. This book begins and ends in emptiness.

A Jamali Rad is a text-forward artist born in Iran and currently living on the Traditional Territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishnaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and Lūnaapéewak Peoples. They have published two full-length books of poetry: for love and autonomy (Talonbooks, 2016) and still (Talonbooks, 2021). Their most recent work is the chapbook WHAT I WANT (Model Press, 2022). Jamali Rad also co-founded the journal About a Bicycle and the small poetry publisher House House Press.