American poet Aram Saroyan was paid $500 USD (in 2020 dollars, roughly $4,125 USD) for the publication of this one-word poem in the early 1960s, and to date no poem has netted as much for its author per word. At the time, the payment and the publication of the poem were controversial, but sometimes art can serve to challenge people’s perceptions, says Victoria Arts Council (VAC) executive director Kegan McFadden, who is curating theconcrete is porous exhibit.
concrete is porous, in which “Lighght” is featured, is part of a wider array of exhibitions called STANZAS. There are six very different pieces in concrete is porous—STANZAS‘ anchor exhibition, taking place at VAC’s main gallery at 1800 Store Street—that all approach the overlap of visual and literary arts. “Lighght,” says McFadden, is a poem that you look at rather than read.
“For me, the reason it’s so great is because you look at it and you think you see what it says,” he says. “You think you read it one way, then you take a second look and it all comes into focus, or, you know, sort of falls out of focus. And that in-between space is what I’m always after.”
“Lighght” is an illumination on landscape or the natural world, says McFadden, but from a completely conceptual and intellectual framework.
“Concrete poetry, really, is like a pared-down version of language… A word that you might have recognized and then you take a second look, and go, ‘That’s not really what that word is,’ through font or through style,” he says.
McFadden says this is a way to get to the meaning of language and expression.
“Right now, I think, we’re in a moment where everything is being questioned for very good reasons,” says McFadden. “So why wouldn’t art help with providing tools of how to question things in a productive way, or in a way that allows other pieces of the puzzle to come into focus?”
There’s so much going on in the world right now, says McFadden, and it’s up to artists, and the VAC, to take these events—namely, the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprisings around racism—very seriously.
“We’re always striving to be more inclusive as an arts council; how that’s going to shake out over the next couple of years will be interesting,” says McFadden. “We’ve been working more and more with Indigenous artists over the years, and we’re really happy to be showing and showcasing [Nisga’a writer] Jordan Abel’s poetry as part of concrete is porous.” (The work is viewable in the main gallery, which has physical-distancing measures in place and a capacity limit of 10. Window galleries are also available for those who aren’t comfortable going into an enclosed space.)
For McFadden, it’s all about seeing through new lenses that the art offers.
“The reason I work in art,” he says, “is because it’s full of possibilities rather than answers.”
STANZAS Until Saturday, October 24
Free, various locations artsvictoria.ca
Banksy is back with his first confirmed installation of 2024.
The anonymous British street artist posted on his Instagram account on Monday that he was behind a mural that was first spotted in Finsbury Park in London over the weekend.
In the artwork, a stenciled figure of a woman appears to have sprayed green paint over a white wall behind a pollarded tree, thus giving an optical illusion effect of foliage.
Others suggested it was a pessimistic take on the environment or a commentary on greenwashing, the tactic the United Nations defines on its website as “misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is.”
Documentarian James Peak, the creator of the BBC’s “The Banksy Story” radio series, said the message is “clear” that “nature’s struggling and it is up to us to help it grow back.”
“When you step back, it looks like the tree is bursting to life, but in a noticeably fake and synthetic way,” he told the broadcaster. “And it’s pretty subtle for a massive tree, I’d say.”
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The artist Banksy has confirmed he is the creator of a large green mural of a tree with apparent environmental overtones which appeared in north London over the weekend.
Residents said they woke up on Sunday to the massive painting on the side of a block of flats in Hornsey Road near Finsbury Park.
Pest Control, the official body that authenticates Banksy work, confirmed to Sky News the painting was indeed Banksy’s latest offering.
The elusive artist – who shares his work on his Instagram page – also posted a picture of the site on his official page on Monday, showing the wall before and after the work was completed.
The large-scale painting is a green splatter-effect shape, painted behind a cut-back tree – giving the appearance of adding a halo of leaves and foliage to the bare branches.
The green paint drips down to the floor, where a figure of a young girl painted with a stencil in green and black is looking up at the work.
She appears to be holding a pressure sprayer.
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The shade of bright green paint used in the piece matches the colour of Islington Council branding, and also seems likely to be a nod to St Patrick’s Day, which was on Sunday 17 March.
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Local resident Amy, who lives in the building said she could never have predicted Bansky would have chosen her flat wall to paint on.
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She told Sky News: “We’ve lived here for three years, so we’ve seen the tree as it was when it was full of leaves and now it’s been chopped down.”
She described it as “a big willow tree” with “layers of leaves kind of over spilling”. She went on: “I suppose that’s what he’s tried to capture with the green. And then I think about a year or two ago, they chopped it down because it was getting too big”.
She described the unexpected painting as “really exciting” adding, “I’m really happy for the community that something so cool happened here“.
MP for Islington North, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also visited the site, sharing pictures on X and writing: “Banksy has come to Islington! What wonderful artwork, proving there is hope for our natural world everywhere.”
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Islington councillor Flora Williamson shared images of the art on X, and said she was a fan of Banksy’s work.
She wrote: “By far the most exciting thing to happen on today’s canvass session on Hornsey Road was seeing that Banksy had come to Tollington overnight. Lots of local interest – I’m a fan of it.”
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Lidia Guerra, another Hornsey Road resident, said: “The way it’s been done with the paint spraying down reminds me of a weeping willow, so there’s perhaps a message about the struggle of nature with the dead tree in front.
“It’s just great – when we read about it last night, we knew we had to come and see it as soon as possible.
“We feel so proud to think he chose our street.”
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Ahead of his latest creation, Banksy’s last confirmed work was a stop sign in Peckham, south London, with three military drones stuck across it, and was shared just before Christmas.
However, that work was removed less than an hour after it was confirmed to be genuine on the artist’s social media, with witnesses reporting it was taken down by a man with bolt cutters.
Two men were later arrested on suspicion of theft and criminal damage.