This week I have the very great pleasure of sharing with you three image and poem pairings by Janet Lees which were part of the recent annual Lorient Art Exhibition.
Janet told me that the whole festival was incredible – an absolute feast for the senses, with music and dancing on a huge variety of stages throughout the town, as well as ‘wild music’ spontaneously breaking out in cafes and bars.
The art exhibition was held at the Hotel Gabriel, a historic 18th century building which houses a contemporary art gallery. She shared her space with the artist representing Scotland, Pat Kramek. Janet said that their work contrasted really well – Pat’s abstract paintings are big and bold with really bright colours, while Janet’s abstract images are smaller, more poetic in feel, and typically in more dreamlike, ethereal colours.
Each of Janet’s 22 images was paired with a poem. She also had a screen showing a reel of poetry films created both independently and in collaboration with other artists and musicians – the most recent one featuring a soundtrack from the Manx indie band Post War Stories. She also hosted the creation of a giant collaborative multilingual poem in which visitors each contributed a single memory from their lives.
Here is the first image and poem this week – ‘Indelible’. Look out for the others on Wednesday and Friday morning.
Indelible
You cracked me
like a book too tightly bound
just wide enough to read
the cyphered part
that spoke to you
that let your fingers in
to touch my paper heart
to write a kinder truth
