After Poetry

In an After Poem the author declares a relationship between their writing and another artist’s work.

“After Poetry” acknowledges that reading poetry influences how I make things. It’s not a direct relationship. I don’t read a poem, get a vision, then make photographs. It’s more like the spirit or ethos of poetry has pervaded my way of thinking and seeing.

A poem, its subject, or the lines, are not directly tied to a specific image. They were decided after the photographs were selected for the exhibition. I selected passages that felt engaging and worked well to enhance the opaque nature of the photographs themselves.

I hope to have created a curiosity in the viewer – that the new relationships between poetic line and photograph might help viewers find a personal relationship with the word and image. Ideally these pairings serve as springboards for the viewer to create new personal narratives, or meaning.

The unpredictable possibility in this process fascinates me. I’ve spent my life reading, watching, listening, viewing, and engaging with art. Through this, I’ve discovered the most relatable and engaging works for me are always those that remain a bit impenetrable. I’m happiest when never fully grasping something in its entirety. I like the unexplained and mysterious questions of life.

Hopefully this love of the opaque and imagination is echoed in After Poetry.