Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This paper investigates the formal response, in terms of both poetry and critical writing, to the formless, most notably visual art which is, at first glance, characterised by obscurity or emptiness (such as Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square). Writing poems about or alongside such images pushes, I suggest, most definitions of ekphrasis to breaking point, and any writing that emerges must in some way align itself with the formal properties of the artwork. I therefore look into framing and the rules which govern both the poem and the image, and how these correspond with or jar against each other. In addition, given that my poems which arise in response to formlessness are quite often dealing with issues of representation or aesthetics, they borrow the language of theory or critical discourse. Conversely, due to the nature of a PhD in Creative Writing, my critical writing will intersect with my poems, opening up the intriguing possibility of integrating literary devices within academic writing. I thus explore how visual, poetic and critical registers can blend or interweave through a book-length project. I am interested in how and under what circumstances each are defined and kept distinct, while allowing at the same time experiments in performative writing: a chance to test the limits of critical writing and what meets the basic criteria of scholarly work (e.g., are citations a prerequisite?). I end by proposing a series of possible formal responses to abstract or minimalist artworks.