Poetry Issues #29 is highly influenced by my studies in Experimental Publishing at the Piet Zwart Institute. The work spans six months, a reasonable time to allow the development of different themes, approaches and methods.
Infrastructure
This piece is part of a larger collaborative work, an interactive, infrastructure-related installation soon to be presented in the upcoming xpub group exhibition (27-30 June, S/ash Gallery, Rotterdam). I also like it as a stand-alone piece, so this is how I present it here.
The poem is performative (improvisational reading) and list-based, simulating computerized speech: a form fitting the content.
Ways In and Ways Out
For Ways In and Ways Out I combined an exercise on loitering, observing, and list making in public space (xpub field work), with a list describing a situation left open to interpretation taking place within the private sphere. The excellent Jon H. Miller let me use his music, and the result speaks for itself.
Desperation
"Desperation" was a thought inspired by the COVID-19 times, but it applies to every prolonged instance of trauma, that eventually becomes unconscious, and it takes time, distance and healing to realize its true dimensions.
As a piece, it incorporates elements from the past, such as a mysterious old recording I've been curious about for years and recently retrieved from an old mini-cassette recorder, and a footage of a place very deeply connected to childhood memories. It's more of a poetized thought than an actual poem, and although it's closer to prose I decided to follow the voice rhythm to create the written lines rather than doing it the other way round.
Care
With "Care" I feel that I go back to the roots of my love for art. Music was in the beginning of it all and now it's time to reconnect with it in a manner that feels complete. "Care" was a poem in the making that I had forgotten about for a little while and when I found it again I saw that it was more of a micro-song. It could have taken many forms, and I can definitely hear me screaming the lyrics in a different version, but this is how it crystallized (at least for now). The visuals were also brewing for a while in the background, with ideas revolving around time-lapses and chalkboards.
Metaphors
Metaphors never cease to amaze me. They are often better and conciser at getting the meaning of the most abstract notions across than a simple description of a situation. As flexible molds, they shape and embody our individual thoughts helping us make sense of our experiences in a collective manner. In this piece different metaphors come together to express a sense of womanhood compiled by different experiential states.
You can read more about the poetry issues project here.
