Can poetry create a shared space that is human and universal? To answer this question, thirteen poets from 26 paired with thirteen Barbican Young Poets programme alumni, led by Jacob Sam-La Rose, to collaborate on this year’s Bloomsbury Festival theme of HumanKind. A group of lettering artists, curated by The Lettering Arts Trust, were then given an open brief to interpret these poems and their art, displayed alongside the collaborative poetry, forms the 26 Connections exhibition.
The artworks use a range of media, from paper and linen to wood, slate and stone and interpret the poems variously, some using a line of the original poem, one or two the whole work. As I entered, I was immediately drawn to Jim Sutherland’s ‘Teachings From Mother Tree’ with its rolled paper forms resembling saplings in a forest, inspired by poets Olivia Sprinkel and Thembe Mvula, who extend ‘an offering/ to be more root/ to be more tree.’ Mark Noad’s stunning ‘Heartsease’ displays poems by Rebecca Zeman & Rachel Lewis, both ending with the word ‘heart’ alongside an anatomical heart in a wood and gold-leaf triptych, like a medieval icon. Cherrell Avery’s etched brass ‘Always Becoming Everything’ transforms paired poems by Noah Jacob and Tim Rich into whirling dissonance, illuminating lines such as, ‘Another supernova and somehow in all this/ entropy, the cosmic dust settled perfectly.’
All these poems are strong on visual interest as well as language and meaning. John Simmons and Jacob Sam-La Rose create a ‘mandala of words’, with Janus, two-faced god of doorways at its centre reminding us, ‘somewhere in the silence/ is the sound of peace/ and there in the peace/ is the echo of violence’. Rishi Dastidar and Megha Harish have crafted a specular or mirror-poem, titled , “What does day 2 look like’ which begins (and ends) ‘We were looking for a shipwreck/ in a wormhole commonwealth.’ Their line ‘Self-care hack: take the self out, just care.’ is wonderfully imaged in Annet Stirling’s two piece cut-paper collage. Maggie Wang and Lisa Andrews take the United Nations General Assembly’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights to create their own partly ‘found’ poem ‘Declaration on Our Kind’; the varying bold emphasis of their typeface symbolises their response to phrases from the original text.
I could go on – every poem and artwork here is worthy of attention – but I would rather you visit yourself. This stunning exhibition is on at The Building Centre, Store Street until 14th November and essays giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the poetic collaborations are available to read here.
– Gita Ralleigh