Archives for July 2018
Life in Motion: Egon Schiele/Francesca Woodman
The rationale behind exhibiting the Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918) with the American photographer Francesca Woodman (1958 – 1981) is, to quote Tate Liverpool, that they are “sublimely innovative artists that connect across time and medium.” Wandering through the gallery there’s an immediate sense of kindred spirits, in the ease with which the Read More
My Writing Day
I read these words over the shoulder of someone reading it the other day on the tube: “A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.” Franz Kafka. It made me laugh, and the person who was reading it looked up, and we both smiled at each other. Perhaps that other person was a writer too? Read More
Unearthly Toys: Poems and Masks
Ned Denny is a London-born author/critic whose work has been published in various magazines and publications along. Unearthly Toys: Poems and Masks combines his previous work with a large number of new poems to comprise a very diverse and eclectic book. Spread throughout the collection are many poems that are directly inspired by, or are Read More
‘Taking Ideas for a Walk’: The 2018 Essay Conference (Post-conference reactions)
Day One When I was informed that our very first essay conference was to take place two days before my graduation, I’ll admit I was dubious. Such anticipation, such enthusiasm, would surely exhaust itself and leave me slogging on stage with about as much energy as an old sloth, overwhelmed with ideas, questions and a Read More
THE BOOK OF THE PEONY
In a remarkable extension of thought, The Book of the Peony buds, expands and lets fall astounding petals: prose poems and haiku invoking an infinite, unattainable peony. The peony is allegorical. It is approached with the mind. It is the illusory peony of separation, of birth and death. Or, it is the shimmering unity beyond Read More
Shrines of Upper Austria (Shortlisted, TS ELIOT POETRY PRIZE)
Phoebe Power’s Shrines of Upper Austria beckons to the wayfarers. An amalgamation of poetry and prose, the collection is a seamless combination of imagery and narration. With its vocal fragments and lyricism, it is both political and perspicacious. Power’s Shrines of Upper Austria reads like the “humming” of a relic folk tune, remembered, re-sung, and Read More
Black Sun (Shortlisted for 2018 Forward Prizes for Poetry, Best Collection)
displays of pride, the concupiscent eye bent inward w/ súch deep longing. When readers omit a poem’s title, I’m perturbed. Poets fret over titles. Not just their wording. Should it hold to the left, be centred? Capitalisation? If there is superscription, are italics necessary? Are endnotes too hidden? Are footnotes overly close and distracting? Don’t Read More
Paolozzi Revealed: Ten days with a creative Titan
Picking up Paolozzi Revealed, I did expect a window into the private life of this creative titan. Instead, this summary of a Masterclass run by the renowned sculptor reads more like a research paper on creativity. But maybe that is indeed, in itself, revealing of Paolozzi, this book seemingly an embodiment of the creative process. In Read More