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Breathing in Art, Breathing out Poetry: Contemporary Australian Art and Artists As a Source of Inspiration for a Collection of Ekphrastic Poems

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Breathing in Art, Breathing out Poetry: Contemporary Australian Art and Artists As a Source of Inspiration for a Collection of Ekphrastic Poems Breathing in art, breathing out poetry: Contemporary Australian art and artists as a source of inspiration for a collection of ekphrastic poems. Erin Shiel A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of Sydney 2016 Abstract: During the course of this Master of Arts (Research) program, I have written The Spirits of Birds, a collection of thirty-five ekphrastic poems relating to contemporary Australian art. The exegesis relating to this poetry collection is the result of my research and reflection on the process of writing these poems. At the outset, my writing responded to artworks viewed in galleries, in books and online. Following the initial writing period, I approached a number of artists and asked if I could interview them about their sources of inspiration and creative processes. Six artists agreed to be interviewed. The transcripts of these interviews were used in the writing of further poetry. The interviews also provided an insight into the creative processes of artists and how this might relate to the writing of poetry. The exegesis explores this process of writing. It also examines the nature of ekphrasis, how this has changed historically and the type of ekphrastic poetry I have written in the poetry collection. In analysing the poems and how they related to the artworks and artists, I found there were four ways in which I was responding to the artworks: connecting to a symbolic device in the artwork, exploring the inspiration or creative process of the artist, drawing out a life experience or imagined narrative through the artwork and echoing the visual appearance of the artwork in the form of the poem. My exegesis considers these different forms and draws some links between the creative processes of the artists interviewed and the writing of poetry. Acknowledgements: The generosity of the artists who agreed to be interviewed about their sources of inspiration and creative processes is gratefully acknowledged. Rachel Carroll, Rox de Luca, Nic Folland, Claire Healy, Sean Cordeiro and Tom Carment, thank you for your time and for sharing your thoughts so freely. To Judith Beveridge, thank you for your gentle guidance, wisdom and kindness at all stages of this project. To Tanya Nakhl, thank you for patiently assisting me with formatting and transcripts. To Robert Dick, thank you for continuing to believe. Publications: The following poems have been published during the writing of this collection and exegesis: “Syaw” in Meanjin, Summer 2015; “When the Wind Stopped” in Cordite, October 2015; “Nacred” in Australian Love Poems, 2013; “Simryn Gill’s Pearls” in Australian Poetry Members Anthology, 2013. Table of Contents 1. Ekphrastic Poetry Collection: The Spirits of Birds 2. Exegesis: Breathing in art, breathing out poetry: Contemporary Australian art and artists as a source of inspiration for a collection of ekphrastic poems. 3. Appendices: A. Email inviting artists to participate in research project B. Participant Information Statement C. Consent Form D. Interview Transcript – Rachel Carroll E. Interview Transcript – Rox de Luca F. Interview Transcript – Nic Folland G. Interview Transcript – Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro H. Interview Transcript – Tom Carment I. Images of Artworks referred to in the Exegesis The Spirits of Birds Erin Shiel A collection of poems inspired by Australian contemporary artworks and artists. The poems are intended to be independent of the artworks. However, a reference to a visual image of artworks relevant to each poem has been provided in the endnotes. Contents The Spirits of Birds 2 Humble 4 Saffron Thistle Sticks 5 Night Dissolves 6 For Jack Hegarty 7 Postcards from Coogee 8 Syaw 9 Chandelier 10 Grace Bros Miranda Fair Lighting Department 11 Magnolia 12 The Usefulness of a Chandelier in Antarctica 13 When the Wind Stopped 14 Nacred 16 Measuring Silence 17 About the Stars 19 On the Deck at Austinmer 20 In Patricia Piccinini’s Workshop 21 Simryn Gill’s Pearls 22 A Child’s First Memento Mori 23 Sonnet for Hattah 24 Salty Mouth 25 Saved 26 Ode to a Container Ship 28 The Angst and Loneliness of a Pencil 29 Whirring 30 Lola Ryan’s Shellworked Harbour Bridge 31 Sustenance 32 Conversation Between Two Reclining Dogs in Elisabeth Cumming’s Studio 33 Fog 34 We are China 35 Prayer in a Fish Trap 36 At the House on Rocky Point Road 37 House Pallet 38 Lesser Zimbabwe Ruins 39 When is a Nest Finished? 41 Endnotes 42 1 The Spirits of Birds Where are all the bodies of dead birds? Where do they hide after their last migration? So many flying, yet in the bush, no carcasses, no skeletal remains. Are they buried by a gathering of their relatives, scraping and scratching the earth with feet and beaks to form a shallow grave? Maybe they wait in their nests while they are dying, then decay with their beaks pointing to the heavens: funeral pyres for a bushfire. As birds die out their collection should not be left to taxidermists. Artists and singers should collect them in glass cases not to represent the first of their species given a latin name, but in memory of the last of their kind. Their elements will be distilled, sulphur from the cockatoo’s crest, carbon from the crow’s black Arrkk, mercury from the eye of a kingfisher. Silver from the bellbird’s call, calcium from the bones that caught the slipstream of the wind. Oxygen from between the barbules of feathers. 2 After a while we will use all the odd socks from our laundries and cosset them, one sock for every bird. We will peg the socks on telegraph wires a memorial to birds who have not been given a fitting burial. They can hang there in the breeze, to once again view the territory below and disdainfully fly aloft leaving us to arch our necks and wonder if they were never birds, just spirits cloaked in the elements of earth. After Janet Laurence, The matter of nature, 2005.1 See note on Shelley and A.D. Hope2 3 Humble I wave them off to school and turn to porridge bowls and dirty clothes. My eyes search for one sharp edge. The inside of the house shrinks, airless. I need flowers. I walk out on Mount Stromlo to look for native daisies, even bush pea. The field’s full of paddy melons. Then, a metal object, farm machinery, so honest against the horizon. No artifice, no motive like a flower. I keep searching for rusting detritus resting here and there. Far easier than drinking tea and tearing small pieces off iced buns avoiding talk about stain removal and childhood illnesses. It was dark before I came home with it. He’s not too sure about it yet. He works with stars, constellations of gas, distant bodies he can’t grasp. All moon dust to me. My stars are barbs on rusted rolls of fencing wire. Sharper than sky stars they twinkle with their last flecks of zinc. My stars hurt, can be held, lie in dirt, lie in wait. Too humble to shine or grant wishes. I bring together crates broken into chunks. Word shards move in swarms like insects chirring. Rain, sleet, wind, heat pummel surfaces humble. Remove the shellac, the slogan of the drink company. Yellow and black road signs used to giving orders and directions now bump together to form hills and valleys, curve into each other like a child’s jigsaw. See saw back to Auckland and the garden knee deep in michaelmas daisies. Thank god my aunt painted the hydrangeas green. After Rosalie Gascoigne, Monaro, 1989. 3 See note on biographical details. 4 4 Saffron thistle Shifting thistle Saffron thistle sticks bathed sticks bathed sticks bathed in pastoral in saffron light in shifting light create create light create a a shifting a pastoral pastoral patchwork patchwork patchwork thistle sticks a peace to a peace to a peace to created by shifting created by shifting pastoral patchwork pastoral patchwork Saffron light Saffronbathes light a patchwork pastoral Light on saffron shifts thistle sticks creating creating a thistle sticks a peace to walk around a to walk peace walk around around a to walk peace walk around walk around Saffron thistle Shifting light sticks create bathes a shifting saffron thistle patchwork sticks to create bathed in a pastoral patchwork patchwork thistle sticks pastoral light thistle sticks in shifting light in light shifting creates a pastoral createspastoral a a piece to walk a piece to walk Creating a pastoral Creatinga pastoral patchwork of saffron patchwork of saffron sticks in sticks lights shifting Bathing saffron thistle Bathingthistle saffron a piece to walk around a to walk piece a piece to walk around a to walk piece around a to walk piece around around pastoralLight on a shifts 5 Creating a Bathing Light shifts on 5 pastoral saffron thistle a pastoral patchwork of sticks in patchwork of saffron thistle shifting light saffron around walk sticks in creates a thistle sticks shifting light pastoral pastoral light saffronthistle a peace to tosticks create a peace to create shifting a patchwork Shifting light Shiftingbathes light Saffron thistle sticks Saffronthistle sticks patchwork bathed in bathed patchworkin walk around a patchwork pastoral a peace a to peace a peace to walk around a to walk peace walk around a peace to walk around Saffron light Light shifts on bathes saffron thistle around a pastoral sticks creating patchwork a pastoral created by patchwork patchwork light create light create light create shifting thistle a piece to walk create a pastoral create pastoral a bathed in shifting bathed in shifting sticks bathed pastoralin Saffron thistle sticks Saffronthistle sticks Saffron thistle sticks Saffronthistle sticks a shifting a patchwork shifting Shifting thistle sticks Shiftingthistle sticks a patchwork pastoral around bathed in saffron bathed light in saffron a piece to walk around a to walk piece a piece to walk around a to walk piece a piece to walk a to walk piece a piece to walk 1981 Piece Around, to Walk After Gascoigne, Rosalie Saffron Thistle SticksSaffronThistle around Night Dissolves My toes grip the sand that squeaks as I drag a stick to trace my path.
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