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Object Poems

By Lisa Radon
November 4, 2011
Visual Art

 

Anna and Leo Daedalus, Ten Rocks with Their English Translations

Anna and Leo Daedalus, Ten Rocks with Their English Translations

 

It would be impossible for me to overstate how much I’m looking forward to seeing the exhibition, Object Poems, curated by poet, David Abel opening at 23 Sandy Gallery (623 NE 23rd Avenue). The original conceit of the show, to invite poets to make objects is interesting enough, but for those who like robust ideas behind their objects, this is going to be a feast particularly with work by my favorite poet, theorist, and Four Horseman, Steve McCaffery; by the brilliant poet/critic, curator Bill Berkson; by Fluxus artist, Alison Knowles (!); by Seattle artist Buzz Spector, who has often incorporated books into sculpture and installation, by visual poets Niko Vassilakis and Geof Huth, plus a number of Portland poets of whom I think highly including: Mark Owens, Leo and Anna Daedalus, James Yeary, and of course Abel himself. If only every artist were jetting in for the opening, it would be a confab of mindbending proportions.

Abel had begun with the notion that these would be objects in three dimensions, no books, and no broadsides, but from the preview on the 23 Sandy website, I’m glad he relaxed his criteria so that a bookwork (or more specifically book and rockwork) like Anna and Leo Daedalus’ Ten Rocks with their English Translations is included.

There are:

poems in three dimensions; interactive poems; found poems; sculptural and utilitarian poems; conceptual poems; poems that depart in myriad ways from the familiar form of the printed page. The exhibition features more than thirty artists from across the United States, as well as Canada, England, Scotland, and Uruguay, including seven artists from Oregon.

David Abel, the curator, says that “there have been a number of exhibitions and publications devoted to the work of authors as artists: paintings, drawings, sculptures, created independently of the writings for which they are primarily known. To assemble this exhibition, in contrast, I searched for three-dimensional works that had been created as poems, by means of a compositional and poetic practice that was not separate from the artist’s written work. The range of genres, media, and styles is remarkable and demonstrates again the interdependence of advances in all the arts.

Exhibiting artists include Drew Kunz, Alison Knowles, Joseph Keppler, Nico Vassilakis, Harriet Bart, Michael Basinski, Bill Berkson, Jen Bervin, Kristin Prevallet, Clemente Padin, James Yeary, Alec Finlay, Steve McCaffery, Eric Magrane, Jim Clinefelter, Norma Cole, J. A. Lee, Leo & Anna Daedalus, Marilyn R. Rosenberg, Geof Huth, Mary Ann Hayden, Alan Halsey, Buzz Spector, Kyle Schlesinger, Kaia Sand, Curtis Steiner, Mark Owens & Maria José Gonzalez Arredondo, David Abel, Andrew Topel, K. S. Ernst.

 

Opening Reception: Friday, November 4, 5-8 PM

Reading/Performance: Saturday, November 5, 4 PM

Oregon ArtsWatch Archives