Posts Tagged: Poetry

to be a Woman – CamIris exhibition 2014

My first response to the theme of the exhibition was a blurb book with the story of my life. Being a woman was being me. Then I thought that was too narrow and too personal, so I looked for poems I had written which dealt with the women who had influenced me or been important to me and my role in womanly aspects of my life, motherhood, sisterhood. Later I wrote a poem specifically for the exhibition and what came to light was more a question, when do we have an idea about womanly or manly? Is it a subtle changing idea, can one be “just woman”?

No answer to this question, just images. Following a pattern similar to Paul Gauguin’s questions and title “D’où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?” (Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?).

The first picture is “what was my face like before I was born” a time when no one knew my gender, a time when I wonder what my face was like.

A page from the smaller book "To be a Woman Margot KrebsNeale"
You can see both books on the page TWO BOOKS OF POETRY AND PHOTOGRAPHY.

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To the second question “Que sommes-nous?” (what are we?) the response would be “Gold and Mine (2013)” : in the foreground a cup, a vessel and in the background eyes and mystery, like the relationship between the unconscious and what we try to offer to the world. The depth mined for gold.

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Gold and Mine (2013)

A response less mysterious but not without its ambiguities is “Manly, Womanly and Me (2013)”. Behind the image of me, what image of masculinity and femininity was I given by my parents?. Mars, Venus, Saturn, Artemis, so many ways to weave the masculine and feminine.

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Manly, Womanly and Me (2013)

“Flots de Mots (2014)” is not an image, it is a river, with a source and a powerful flow, like the words pouring out in writing, in attempts to give shape to uncertainties and discoveries, answers and new questions and maybe help say something about where we are going, and that may be back to the source.

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Flots de Mots (2014)
This photograph is of THE RIVER, an installation by the artist Charles Sandison commissioned by the musée du quai Branly, is a work of spectacular video art. Immersed in a river of words that are moving, generated by a network of computers, and projected at varying rhythms and densities for the whole length of the route, visitors will encounter the names of all the peoples and geographic places represented in the museum’s collections. In this way, THE RIVER goes along with the flow of visitors as they ascend right to the source: the collections floor.
… polynésie ravenna slavonska narabat miguel puno nek papantia creuse dogon rajbari nicolas pequetzen rapa pitcalm foukhar botswana pitcairn lipez putau rachaya magdalena santa oblysy sepik san luis piedras quijarro rangamati …

Photographs of the exhibition at Atworks, October 11th and 12th

Thank you to Peter Nixon and Justyna Rostankowska

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Click on the photo to see the 10 blurb books made for the exhibition

If you want to buy one of the two books I made for the exhibition, go to the page

Le plus grand voyage

Aux portes
Du plus grand voyage
Démunis
Et sans bagages
Ou bien non
ni démunis
ni sans bagages

Nous avons
Toute notre richesse intérieure
Toutes nos peurs aussi
Les mauvais souvenirs de voyage
Les accueils sans chaleur

Nous avons
Tous les objets
Tous les lieux
Tous les gens
Qu'on ne veut pas quitter

Et pourtant
La liberté
L'immense danse
A laquelle nous sommes invités
C'est peut-être cela qu'il faut envisager
Se tourner toujours vers l'avenir
Car il y a toujours un avenir
Un devenir

Où on va
Et ce/ux qu'on quitte
On donne, on laisse, on lègue
Nos richesses intérieures
Tous les moments de bonheur
Le courage devant les malheurs
Les objets avec et sans valeur

On donne le sens de la continuité
La vie, au propre ou au figuré.

Il y a toujours un avenir
Un devenir
Ne pas trop s'en inquiéter
Glisser
Comme à notre naissance
Se laisser porter
Appartenir
A l'immensité
D'une manière
Qu'on n'a pas imaginée.

Ouvrir une porte
Passer un seuil
L'esprit vous porte
comme le vent la feuille.

Text and photography ©Margot Krebs Neale

Writing

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My friend is a stranger

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En främling är min vän, en som jag inte känner
En främling längt längt borta.
För hans skull är mitt hjärta fullt av nöd.
För han inte finns hos mig.
För att han kanska inte alls finns ?

Vem är du som uppfyller mitt hjärta med din fraanvaro ?
Som uppfyller hela världen med din fraanvaro ?

Pär Lagerkvist, Aftonland

Mon ami est un étranger,
quelqu'un que je ne connais pas.
Un étranger très très loin.
De sa faute mon cœur est en détresse.
Parce qu'il n'est pas près de moi
Parce que peut être il n'existe pas ?

Qui es-tu, qui remplit mon cœur de ton absence ?
Qui remplit la terre entière de ton absence ?

Pär Lagerkvist, Pays du Soir

My friend is a stranger, someone I do not know.
A stranger far, far away
For his sake my heart is full of disquiet
Because he is not with me
Because, perhaps, after all he does not exist?

Who are you who so fill my heart with your absence?
Who fill the entire world with your absence?

Pär Lagerkvist, Evening Land