Simon Armitage: Flit Media Release

Yorkshire Sculpture Park publishes 40th anniversary collection of poems by renowned poet Simon Armitage This month, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) will publish Flit, a new collection by the renowned poet Simon Armitage. The fully illustrated publication comprises 40 poems by Armitage, who was poet in residence at YSP throughout 2017, its 40th anniversary year. The residency saw Armitage, a regular visitor to YSP, choose to explore its landscape, sculptures and buildings in a new light. Rather than writing a direct commentary on the Park, he has redefined it as its own country, the little-known Ysp (pronounced eesp). Letting his imagination run wild, Armitage has mapped an elaborate, alternative reality that melds fact and fiction, creating a fanciful existence for both YSP and the poet himself. The resulting poems tell the story of Ysp through his eyes as an outsider getting to grips with life in an unfamiliar place during a period of self-imposed exile. “Disillusioned by the domestic cultural scene and in search of a more depersonalised aesthetic, Armitage relocated to the small mid-European state of Ysp, and more particularly to its eponymous capital city. With no local contacts and only an out-dated pocket dictionary to hand, Armitage rented a small apartment in a former leprosy hospital Simon Armitage at YSP and spent a year exploring Ysp’s medieval backstreets, latter-day shopping malls, housing in March 2018. districts, redeveloped docks and rural hinterlands.” Photo © Jonty Wilde Flit_Layout 1 02/02/2018 14:56 Page 9

Armitage said of the residency: “I wanted to think of myself as a visitor or immigrant to this place, investigating its customs, legends and traditions, wandering with a notebook and observing its latter-day comings and goings.” From a talking fox to a vengeful sommelier, Armitage navigates through a shadowy cast of characters in a collection that combines an often dark and unsettling atmosphere with the poet’s characteristic dry humour. The publication is illustrated with Armitage’s own photographs, taken throughout the year, which have been coloured and, in some cases, overlaid with collaged elements from historic engravings. The 40 poems vary greatly in form and length, from short fragments through to extended free verse, and even include translations from the oeuvre of Ysp’s own renowned but mysterious fellow immigrant poet known only as HK. Visitors to YSP are invited to see photographs featured in the book, and a film of the poet reading on site at the Park, in a new display in YSP Centre from Monday 19 March to Sunday 10 June 2018. Armitage will read from Flit in a special event at YSP on 14 June 2018 – book online at ysp.org.uk/events.

Flit by Simon Armitage Published by Yorkshire Sculpture Park ISBN 978-1-908432-35-3 Hardback 92 pages 39 colour images, three black and white images Flit cover and images 150 x 230mm portrait format featuring photography and RRP £20 (special on-site price £15) collage by Simon Armitage Notes to Editors About Simon Armitage Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in the West Yorkshire village of Marsden. He studied Geography at Portsmouth University. As a post-graduate student at Manchester University his MA thesis concerned the effects of television violence on young offenders and until 1994 he worked as Probation Officer in Greater Manchester. His first full-length collection of poems, Zoom!, was published in 1989 by Bloodaxe Books and he published The Twilight Readings, an illustrated publication of his earlier residency at YSP, in 2007. In 2010, Armitage was awarded the CBE for services to poetry. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford University in 2015 and Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds in 2017. About Yorkshire Sculpture Park Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is the leading international centre for modern and contemporary sculpture which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017. It is an independent charitable trust and registered museum (number 1067908) situated in the 500-acre, 18th-century Bretton Hall estate in West Yorkshire. Founded in 1977 by Executive Director Peter Murray, YSP was the first sculpture park in the UK, and is the largest of its kind in Europe, providing the only place in the world to see Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man in its entirety alongside a significant collection of sculpture, including bronzes by Henry Moore, and site-specific works by Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash and James Turrell. YSP also mounts a world-class, year-round temporary exhibitions programme including some of the world’s leading artists across five indoor galleries and the open air. Recent highlights include exhibitions by Not Vital, KAWS, Bill Viola, Anthony Caro, Fiona Banner, Ai Weiwei, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Amar Kanwar, Yinka Shonibare MBE and Joan Miró. YSP’s core work is made possible by investment from Arts Council England, Wakefield Council, Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation and Sakurako and William Fisher through the Sakana Foundation. YSP was named Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2014. ysp.org.uk Social Media #YSP / #SimonArmitage Twitter and Instagram: @YSPsculpture / @simonarmitage_official Press Enquiries Sophie Steel, Sutton: +44 (0)20 7183 3577 / [email protected] Nina Rogers, Yorkshire Sculpture Park: +44 (0)1924 832633 / [email protected] Kerry Chase, Yorkshire Sculpture Park: +44 (0)1924 832 515 / [email protected] Download images at ysp.org.uk/SimonArmitagePress