All Out in the Open

by Charalampos Tzanakis, Zak Ferguson (editor)

ALL OUT IN THE OPEN - My life as fairytale means - when I look at my drawings and writings, they were always meant to happen I am starting to see a pattern against comparative thought, I am starting to see a pattern in circles around the neighbourhood, becoming a Star in my headIf I look at my notes and see something I don’t remember, no idea where it came from but I can’t judge it too harshly, it can emerge as something newInsists on the blue notebook - capturing extreme emotional states on the blue notebook pageMy drawings and writings happen After the storm Using pop culture and music to the advantage of the artwork because letters in caps pop to the eyeAfter each line of my poems I imagine a head turn-It counts both as recharge for the next line and a much-needed travel back in time in order to restore Star turnStar turn for many tales of stars under the sun I champion the raw, the half-madeIf I think every word is worthy then it is - openly betting to the word that dazzles, refusing to polish, keeping the mistakes in…Playing not only with memory, but with screens, headphones, visions, sends signals, allowing you to beTaking pride in your work in the moment means that it will expand and tons more will comeAfter a while, a while after the creation, the drawing and writing, they feel like they were always meant to happen-My drawings and writings will be unearthed - I look at them as placeholder until true release, action comes - movement towards my dreams so they have open ended quality. You can for sure see yourself in them, it is not hope but I am sure they feel like mirror or secretly transmit ideas so you free yourself. The rough edges of the drawings end up in right looking whole final image so I know I am free. Not long after I complete the drawing without prior thought automatic style it feels like it was always meant to happen. I put it away, hide it and I unearth it months, even years later - when I do I don't remember how it looks or when I did it. It is born again, like every time you place it somewhere or you look - so I am free

199 pages, Paperback

Published January 6, 2024

Reviews

[Cameron S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Grimoire of Affirmation
“All Out in the Open” is one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year, and I can't say I've read anything quite like it before. The work is a living collage, a tessellating magical interplay of poetry and drawings. The work is deeply personal, but it bears an otherworldly, channeled quality that connects the reader to something universal as well. The poems dance between themes of daily life, self-reflection, love, relationships, pain and fantasy, and are like stones around which the drawings flow. I found it quite enjoyable to turn these pages, to see whether an idea keeps going or breaks off into something new. Multiplicity and repetition are used to great effect, and there is a lot going on here at the formal level that makes the book both playful and mysterious. That and, it simply brims with life. It is simultaneously a process exposed and a dream realized, something that was "always meant to happen", as Tzanakis writes. "All Out in the Open" is a shattered mirror whose shards, rather than distorting one’s reflection or cutting flesh, simply captures the light, whether that be the light of stars or the flashbulbs of our fantasies. Either way, our lives and our selves are illuminated.

[Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

“All Out in the Open” reads like an experiment in divination. The images scratch across the page like automatic drawings, and the repeating appearance of a woman’s face stares out of the page at the reader like a spirit from a scrying mirror. It feels familiar, but we want more, and in these moments of chaotic insecurity, delicate, precise handwritten words clarify the author’s thoughts, intentions, hopes.

Several key motifs flow through this work, and it is fun to discover them as you progress and become immersed in its world. It is definitely a piece of work that can be enjoyed multiple times and still feel fresh.

[Matthew Kinlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I look at you and I see me."

Glass spires of a dreaming castle. Reflections of a mysterious woman as she walks down a mirrored corridor, her eyeballs multiplying like a chain of pearls. Charalampos Tzanakis disrupts and rewrites his own story through poetry and illustration in All Out in the Open. Like Marjorie Cameron walking across a pink room in Curtis Harrington’s The Wormwood Star, Tzanakis weaves his fantasies and dreams into bouquets of wild roses. Transformation as magic. Reminiscent of the fluid drawings of Unica Zürn, Tzanakis’s phantom figures mutate and bloom. Tzanakis enters the dreams of a pop star, Ariana Grande lost in pink perfume. A line on a page becomes a butterfly or a flower. Dreams as a compass, a thousand blue stars: the pale orbit of Venus. Petals falling at the feet of the rose king. At the end of a corridor, she turns towards the mirror. I saw you in my dream.

[Filip · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful channeled pieces of text + pictures. seems like texts from whispers of angels

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I go back to this book like every day is the same. Inspiring, beautiful, melancholy but hopeful and precious. I treasure Charalampos's work, the work of a truly sensitive spirit.