About

Le Roman Du Lievre:

In the fall of 2007, while living in London, James Riordan began what would become a continuing series of books, performances, and other work serving as appendices to his own eventual translation of the French poet Francis Jammes’ 1903 novel Le Roman Du Lievre. Each piece intended to explore different ideas regarding translation, chronicling Riordan’s investigations into the novel’s subject matter. Though the earlier of these appendices were all books dealing with the artist’s personal relationship with the text, the latter, including a collaborative audio book and the preparation and presentation of a meal, would begin to take on more cooperative and public forms.

As with most ventures, Riordan’s interest in Le Roman Du Lievre had began well before the inception of this project. Riordan had first encountered the story in 2002 in the form of Gladys Edgerton’s Romance of the Rabbit, a 1920’s English translation of Jammes’ novel. A tale of reconciliation between the poets own spirituality and his love of the natural world, the novel seemed to have a more universal relevance to Riordan, who found its concerns and revelations applicable to not only the relationship between Heaven and the Earth, but to that of the manmade and the natural, intellectual and environmental.

A turning point in Riordan’s relationship with the novel and the impetus for a more hands on engagement came in 2007 when he first thought to look at the text in its original French. Not knowing French, Riordan began translating the book’s first paragraph using a French to English dictionary, discovering in its first sentence that Le Roman Du Lievre was about a hare not a rabbit.

The Show:

After more than a years work researching Le Roman Du Lievre, and after producing a variety of books, prints, and a preliminary translation of the novel, Riordan left London and returned to the city of his birth, Anchorage, Alaska. It was there, with the help of New York curator Leslie Rosa Stumpf, that Riordan began planning the group exhibition Le Roman Du Lievre: Marginalia. A form of ever changing illustration and elaboration showcasing local Alaskan and international artists whose works ranged from painting and sculpture to video, performance and food, the first incarnation of Marginalia took place September 2009, at Anchorage’s MTS Gallery. For more information regarding Le Roman Du Lievre: Marginalia and its evolution, including Return to Me and  Appendix G visit www.leromandulievre.com