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Table I: Poetry Response
PrintSculptureInstallation 2024
In this installation project, I worked alongside my partner to interpret and visually express a poem. This project required me to deconstruct the meaning of the author’s work, and respond with an original, image-heavy expression. For this exercise, my partner and I decided to respond to Table I by Czeslaw Milosz. It reads:
Only this table is certain. Heavy, Of massive wood.
At which we are feasting as others have before us,
Sensing under the varnish the touch of other fingers.
Everything else is doubtful. We too, appearing
For a moment in the guise of men or women
(Why either-or?), in preordained dress.
I stare at her, as if for the first time.
And at him. And at her. So that I can recall them
In what unearthly latitude or kingdom?
Preparing myself for what moment?
For what departure from among the ashes?
If I am here, entire, if I am cutting meat
In this tavern by the wobbly splendor of the sea.
After gathering wood scraps and other miscellaneous workshop materials, my partner and I began scanning each object, building a collection of textural geometric forms. We then took these forms into Photoshop, manipulating them to produce the distinct layouts shown, within which we embedded the poem. Having designed the posters, we began printing them in black on a Risograph printer, providing further material to the piece. We additionally worked to design a menu, bringing a more tangible reference to the setting of our poem. With the printed elements completed, we moved toward the production of our sculpture, bringing with it the textural qualities expressed in the opening stanza. To bring these distinct creations together, we densely layered the printed material in the corner of a shelf, which then explodes outward, drawing upon the poem’s feelings of tension and release. Within this explosive scene, we placed our sculpture, grounding the work in the material.
Scanned Assets