write-now

If you start off with the found object, that object already has a history to draw on.  

Cornelia Parker

In London a week ago, I went to the exhibition of Cornelia Parker's work at Tate Britain. Described as "immersive installations", the work, for me, is like poetry: rich with ideas, resonant with emotion and aesthetically beautiful to encounter.  Looking at the suspended pieces of polished silver or walking around the exploded shed hanging around a single light bulb, I meditated on the transmutation of all matter, including ourselves.  Cornelia Parker's work speaks to me of alchemy, of possibility, of mortality and renewal.  On the train, coming home, I scribbled some lines to capture these thoughts.  The poem, Becoming, emerged from those jottings.  I hope it inspires you to look at Cornelia Parker's work and think your own thoughts about the journey of becoming.

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26.6.22

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[photograph taken by jackie scutt]

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Becoming​

Life

history

fills each cell

memory layered on memory

a moving palimpsest 

in reflection

disturbed

life

history

flattened

exploded

hovers in rearranged form

collected

polished

uncovers new angles

life

history

slides

throws shadows

unstoppably

becoming

life

history.

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