The poetry of the 21st century isn't limited to just the page or the screen.
LTCAW is a visual poetry exhibition that is currently on display at the UB Art Gallery. A crafty blend of concrete and digital poetry finds a new canvass to place verse – a canvas that offers limitless possibilities.
Concrete poetry – a picture form with words – allows the reader/viewer to grasp a new poetic meaning. Often not addressed in the classroom, this gallery serves to showcase a medium that deserves exposure.
The curatorial team for LTCAW consists of David Gray chair of poetry and letters Steve McCaffery, adjunct professor of English Karen Mac Cormack, and Curator of the UB Poetry Collection Michael Basinski.
"The curatorial team shares the idea that poetry appears everywhere, not solely on a printed page or computer screen," Mac Cormack said. "Each new technology through the centuries provokes new ways and materials for language/art to be created and experienced."
Utilizing mediums as diverse as typewriter texts and flat screen TVs, the gallery achieves its goal by encouraging interaction with words other than static reading.
Prop, a piece consisting of a large 15-foot stick resting against a 50-inch plasma screen, exemplifies the way in which the poetic world has fused its way into the 21st century. Curated by
Loss Pequeño Glazier, a professor of the UB Department of Media Study, the piece seems meaningless until the viewer glances at the video playing on the screen. The video simulates the stick drawing words in sand, perfectly synced up with the tip of the stick that rests on the screen.
These pieces of work interested some viewers, while others felt that the experimental works were incomplete.
"Sometimes I feel like modern art isn't all it's cracked up to be," said Lauren Camp, a senior psychology major.
However, Mac Cormack said that the artists and curators intended for the show to create mixed response.
"As curators, we wanted to present a range of work that provides the opportunity to explore the rich history of concrete and visual poetry and their developments in the making," Mac Cormack said.
The exhibit was designed to connect with every viewer that looks at it. An immense variety of styles were used to generate the pieces and there is a piece for every viewer that enters, whether they are interested in sound, stage, sculpture, photography, or pop art. There are even poems placed on global post cards to interest travelers and tourists.
Mac Cormack and the other curators hope and believe that attendees will find joy in the exhibit's diversity.
"Every viewer will get something different from the works in LTCAW," Mac Cormack said. "Hopefully viewers will leave the exhibition with the realization that poetry is multi-dimensional – just as life is."
This exhibit is on display at the UB Art Gallery in the CFA until Feb. 18.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
