Art / arnolfini
‘I, The Poet. You, The Poet’ launches at SPACE
Last Monday, August 21 saw the opening of I, The Poet. You, The Poet, a new exhibition created by artists and sisters Laurie and Biba Cole and on view at SPACE, Old Market.
The pair seem to have two distinct aims in creating this exhibition. The first is to blur the line between the written word and works of visual art, while showing how the two can influence and develop from each other. The second is to highlight the subjectivity of artistic interpretation.
“We’ve both always been interested in poetry, and have always used it as a starting point for our work,” said Biba. “We decided to play a game of visual consequences in which we both made pieces based on each other’s writing.”
is needed now More than ever
A game of consequences using a bamboo pole as a quill
The concept of the game of consequences is taken further in the gallery space itself. Viewers are invited to write a few lines of verse, draw a picture or communicate something using any medium on pieces of paper. This piece of paper is then left out for the next participant to respond to, and so on and so on until a cohesive whole is formed. The two will then respond to the finished collections with a new piece of art, creating a potentially endless cycle of creation.
These games highlight the idea of subjectivity of interpretation which is central to their exhibition. “My paintings are an amalgamation of multiple poems,” said Laurie. “My response to Biba’s poems is ever changing – every time I read the poems again my painting would change.”
What one person sees in a particular picture, or understands in a particular line of verse, may be entirely different to what the original artist intended – even the artist’s interpretation of their own work can shift over time.
The launch event on August 21
Biba illustrated this point well with a story behind a particular work on display, depicting a sedentary cow at the forefront. “I originally wrote the line ‘Onto the shoulders and at the heart of the calves, he shall plant and throw.’ And Laurie interpreted that as an animal calf, rather than human calves.” From this misunderstanding came an original piece of work which couldn’t have existed without Laurie’s subjective interpretation of Biba’s poem.
What Biba and Laurie so skilfully show is how once a piece of art is created, it exists free from the burden of objectivity. With a post-modern agenda, the pair show that all art is open to any number of different but equally valid interpretations, and that this in turn can lead to original and unique works of art.
I, The Poet. You, The Poet will be at SPACE until Aug 26 , and at The Other Art Fair Bristol, Arnolfini from 1-3 September. See here for more from Biba, and here for more from Laurie
Read more: Preview: The Other Art Fair Bristol 2017
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