Poems inspired by exhibitions, performances, and more…

Maud Sulter - You are my kindred spirit

23/11/24 - 30/03/25 - TRAMWAY, Glasgow

The horn does not bellow soft Against the crisp candour melody, Of dialogue, & of despair Which casts itself diffuse Across the room

 

To nestle in my ear, The chorus rings a truth, The visuals, and videos all become its proof

 

The sheets of white, & planes of red, To be both shadowed and in spotlight. Amongst the wee sea of faces,

A tide of thee.

 

Your face at once, Both turned toward And turned away, Glancing at me? Or glancing which way?

 

I feel taken aback, In time, & through, Looking at you, Garnering an insight inside of you, & those around you, too.

 

I felt at once present A confluence of times gone by & times not yet And yet so lost, not fixed, not set.

The veils of white, walls of red, and sincerity captured black, white, by thee, Made me think, feel, and see, For once with a little more clarity…

…Milky eyes of gone times, I glance through opals of cedar oak. Now and perhaps, for a-time unspecified…

Image of ‘Maud Sulter - You are my kindred spirit’, Tramway, taken by author

Image of ‘Maud Sulter - You are my kindred spirit’, Tramway, taken by author


Delaine Le Bas - Delainia: 17071965 Unfolding

7/06/24 - 13/10/24 - TRAMWAY, Glasgow

So much time spent within these walls,  It sends shivers through me still,  So unnerving are, The themes and histories,  Those which she distils.

I walk a line in reverie,  Sunk within the echoed phrase,  With which she blurts across the space,

I come across each piece,  Now one,   Encased in lavender and hay,  And find myself at once  Both unnerved and in dismay.

Melancholy familiarity,  A sick nostalgia,  A disturbed memory,  Innocence clouded in judgements once made,  Now set in stone through time and space, Now never shall they fade. 

It stays with me now,  Those histories and tragedies,  At once awake

                           but wow. 

What a space, What a vision  A part of me, a fragment of my memory, lives on inside, stuck somewhere in this place.

 

But alas,  At once in reverie,  And at once awake, This exhibition fosters realities in dreamscapes. 

Image of ‘Delaine Le Bas - Delainia: 17071965 Unfolding’, Tramway, taken by author.

Image of ‘Delaine Le Bas - Delainia: 17071965 Unfolding’, Tramway, taken by author.

Image of ‘Delaine Le Bas - Delainia: 17071965 Unfolding’, Tramway, taken by author.