Brandon Labelle

Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian (Doormats) Brandon Labelle

"Writing comes up from under my skin," writes Brandon LaBelle. "It creeps into my sleep, to tense my fingers; I am plunged into it, as a space for capturing a new voice, for figuring a new body: to take an empty page and to fill it, with the day to day." LaBelle's work as an artist and theorist focuses on the interrelation between the sonic arts, popular culture and theory, using mainly site-specific sound performances. The second volume in Errant Bodies' Doormats series Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian is LaBelle's attempt to engage the events of the Arab Spring through the diary form, in which personal memories are conjoined with broader cultural reflections on American imperialism and revolution. Written between February and June of 2011, Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian is an attempt to outline what LaBelle calls "an agency of the intimate."