Glossary for the Wild Tongues_Publication

Introduction

On the 3rd of April, we traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland for a residency program. While our carrier bags typically contained different personal belongings, on this occasion, we undoubtedly carried bulky jumpers and woollen sweaters to endure the unexpected weather.

During our stay in Iceland, our ^{wild tongues} explored the stories of Katla, one of the largest volcanoes in Iceland, whose name originated from the Norse folklore figure, Katla, a lady who had a magic trouser. We also explored the colonial legacy of language. We densely and joyfully shared our ^glossarieswhile savoring the taste of lava salt and transnational-based cuisine. It was in our dreams that mysterious sounds greeted us. Then this dream led us to listen to the echoes of women who came before us. We continued on a journey to imagine and capture the transformative nature of female figures as they delve into monstrosity. Then we rewrote the stories of female figures.

In this publication, we interweave together speculative fiction and poetry, embracing the bitter and sour tongues of Medusa, Katla, and Masako. It also includes excerpts from our previous works, such as spells for rest and a letter to the grandmother.

The publication was created as a part of our joint exhibition Glossary for the Wild Tongues, taking place at Atletika Gallery, in Vilnius Lithuania July 2023.
We hope that you will find joy in this journey.

Valerie & Emma

^{Footnotes

“We're going to have to control your tongue," the dentist says, pulling out all the metal from my mouth. Silver bits plop and tinkle into the basin. My mouth is a motherlode. The dentist is cleaning out my roots. I get a whiff of the stench when I gasp. "I can't cap that tooth yet, you're still draining," he says. "We're going to have to do something about your tongue," I hear the anger rising in his voice. My tongue keeps pushing out the wads of cotton, pushing back the drills, the long thin needles. "I've never seen anything as strong or as stubborn," he says. And I think, how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it? How do you make it lie down?

Anzaldúa, G. (1999, May 1). Borderlands: The New Mestiza. Chapter 5: How to Tame a Wild Tongue.

When she was planning the book that ended up as Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf wrote a heading in her notebook, "Glossary"; she had thought of reinventing English according to a new plan, in order to tell a different story. One of the entries in this glossary is heroism, defined as “botulism." And hero, in Woolf's dictionary, is "bottle." The hero as bottle, a stringent reevaluation. I now propose the bottle as hero.

Le Guin, R. K. (1989, June 1). Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. Orion. The Carrier Bag Theory Of Fiction. 165-170.}

_{Publication Glossary for the Wild Tongues

Graphic Design: Monika Janulevičiūtė

Translation: Lina Rukevičiūtė, Aistis Žekevičius

Proofread: Kristina Pilitauskienė

Printed at Ariel Ink

Edition 70

Year 2023

ISBN 978-609-96332-2-0}