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Three Poems: Waiting for Seurat, Dystopia Parkway, The Best Thing About Sunday
Three Poems Waiting for Seurat Dystopia Parkway The Best Thing About Sunday Author:Jerome Rothenberg The latest of Jerome Rothenberg's many collaborations with artists, THREE POEMS takes off from Nancy Tobin's brilliantly colored and constructed paintings, to create a mutual celebration of the familiar and familial. The initiatory act here follows from Tobin's quasi-abstract images and her assessment of the mysteries and revelations that her ar... more »t provides her: 'I construct both my paintings and works on paper as a dialogue between the representational and ornamental; which party gets the last word remains a mystery until the composition is complete. I start with painted or drawn images, then literally cut them down to size with scissors before reassembling the components on painted panels or into 'quilted' paper compositions that I treat with successive layers of paint, ink and polymer. This break-'em-down-to-build-'em-up methodology is my way of capturing moments in an expanding universe. Representation is as powerful as it futile. Any tableau is illusory; even mountains are in constant flux. Particles decay, light bends, and perceptions alter with each recollection. My technique in turn encourages the viewer to approach each work with a forensic eye: to examine the constituent parts and try to reconstruct their pedigree, then step in and take in the totality of color and form. The layers I create fade into opacity, however firmly each is fixed in memory. Try to peel them back with your eyes, and you'll reach a new level each time.' THREE POEMS AFTER IMAGES BY NANCY TOBIN also marks the resuscitation of Jerome Rothenberg's Hawk's Well Press, an important poetry project of the 1960s and 70s. Printed with three full-color reproductions and book design by Nancy Tobin.« less