Self-Portrait As Othello (TS Eliot Prize 2023, Winner; Forward Prize for Best Collection 2023, Winner)

In Jason Allen Paisant’s latest collection, Self Portrait As Othello, we see ekphrasis as the active choice of self-examination through the lens of the other. He jumps in and out of the titular painting, looking back on himself through the culture and history that shaped the connection between him and the artwork. The collection intertwines Paisant’s experiences and the fictionalised character of Othello. As Paisant travels the world, so does Othello travel in time, appearing through the collective experience of Black men finding selfhood in a society that denies their humanity….

The Pot of Earth and The Iron Pot

The mythological state of history can cast a shadow on the apparent mundanity of contemporary life. It can be tempting to look at the world and proclaim that we have reached the end of a time where people can look at the world around them with childish wonder. It takes poetic works such as Ruth Mcllroy’s The pot of Earth and the Iron Pot to reinvigorate the majesty of day-to-day life, dissipating the numbness that often accompanies familiarity.

Goliat

There is a stark, polarising beauty in Winter nights. The cold air makes the warmth shine all the brighter. Rhiannon Hooson’s Goliat follows this style of beauty and intrigue, illuminating its subjects through visual and lyrical contrast. The collection pulls the reader into a diverse array of striking landscapes. These places are as much the focus as the people who occupy them, twisting the narratives around complex histories and unique physical features that have moulded them….

Soon Come

The latest exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts combines striking photography, film, and sound to form a reflection on how landscapes and bodies act as conduits for memory. As Williams explores the physicality of record-keeping and the act of self-portraiture, we see the tenuous strings that bind us to physical spaces and moments in time. Every act of recollection is in itself the creation of a memory, a new connection that has ties to both the past and the present….

Slide (Shortlisted, TS Eliot Prize)

Mark Pajak’s debut collection, Slide, is a brutal, captivating account of how survival and death manifest in contemporary life. The hidden pains, fear and connections held so tenuously in the everyday are laid bare, spoken into plain view with striking language that cuts to the heart of the blurred lines between people and the natural world. This collection combines a variety of minimalistic forms and styles, bringing tales of loss, urbanisation, and adolescence in a series of 38 poems split across five sections.

TURNER PRIZE 2022

The latest Turner Prize Exhibition is a medley of emotional connection. Heather Phillipson Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan, and Sin Wai Kin explore the bonds we form with ideas and how these incorporeal acts are made manifest. History, gender, memory, and experience are pulled into the gallery space. Thematically, they harmonise, but each artist presents such a distinctive visual style that every sequence in the exhibition feels fresh.

The Goddesses of Water

Jeanette L. Clariond’s The Goddess of Water transmogrifies reality, bringing the reader into her world and holding them long after they have left the book behind. Clariond has published many collections and her ability to not only write poetry but craft it into such a deliberate, thoughtful structure speaks to her experience.  Every page proves a maze, drawing the reader in and leading them through the rich tapestry of Aztec myth, spoken with striking lyricism and intertwined skilfully with the all too contemporary subject of femicide and gendered violence in South America. 

CHIMERA

Rosaline Nashasibi & Lucy Skaer Cooper Gallery Dundee, 30th September – 10th December For the next three months the Cooper Gallery will be displaying the collaborative work of Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer, who have been working and exhibiting together since 2005. The exhibition, Chimera, is an enigmatic manifestation of new and familiar work by Read More