Ask the Author: Rose Hunter

A gorgeous, poem in two parts, by Rose Hunter, appears in the April issue. She talks with us about living in Mexico, bottle labels, hunting, and more.

1. How often do you read the labels of liquor bottles and cigarette boxes?

Frequently. Especially here in Mexico I can justify it because it’s in Spanish, and I can argue it’s somewhat educational. I have a particular relationship with vodka bottles; I wrote a poem once using some of the details of a Smirnoff label, and I’ve saved an empty bottle of Karat (the other main cheapskate vodka here, apart from Oso Negro) – because I think that label will be part of a poem. I also just like knowing what’s in things, and where they were made; where they’ve come from to get to me. I’m constantly amazed by things like that.

2. Why do we take things that potentially can kill us?

We are short term. If it’s not going to kill us today, we don’t care so much. At least some people think that way.

3. What was your process in building “The Physical Impossibility…”?

I like the word building, yes, exactly. 🙂 I go through so many drafts I can’t remember the process completely. It would have started on paper though, and I would have been looking at the actual objects. I remember also taking some photos of odd stuff like this, including a bottle of Oso Negro and the Pall Mall cigarette sleeve I’d tragically saved, tragically because left to my own devices I do not smoke Pall Malls, and only one person I know really does, which means I’d been hanging onto that sleeve for a long time. I started with the vodka because the oso/bear is a person as well as a drink, so that was all very logical, and then the fact that the cigarette pack was also red brought it in. I called the photo file “memento moris” without thinking about it, and then I guess at some stage I must have seen or remembered Hirst’s installation and probably stared at a picture of that for a while. I like looking at images and objects before / while I write stuff.

4. What have you hunted lately?

Ah, he he. I’m used to my name (!) so what you’re asking didn’t occur to me until after, like, a beat…. Um. Well, related to my answer above, I’m kind of a collector, which could also be a hunter I guess – of bric-a-brac. Yes, more a hunter than a collector because I don’t keep the stuff after I’ve finished with it, whatever finished with it entails, because I don’t like clutter. I have some feathers at the moment that I’ve picked up around the place. I don’t know what that’s about yet, if anything.

5. What do you wish would be hazardous to our health that is currently not hazardous?

This stumps me, because most things seem hazardous, in one way or another. I want to say jealousy and pettiness, but then again those things are already hazardous actually. So maybe it’s a question of degree then. Today I wish when I got on my high horse about something it would be more damaging to my health than it is, because maybe then I’d stop it. But then again that might not deter me.

6. How has living in Mexico influenced your work?

Living in Mexico makes me happy for the most part and relatively speaking and as far as I can tell etc. – which makes me want to write. I don’t write much when I’m down. I really love Mexico – the life, energy, noise…. Someone else called it “a vast bazaar.” Even walking down the same street I walk down every day here seems to be packed with new and interesting stuff. It’s all vibrating at a frequency that I feel tuned into. I feel very devoted to it, and I want to express that in writing.