Adrienne Williams is an artist in the Bundaberg-region who I met recently through my involvement in the Text as Art project – a part of WriteFest and the 2017 Crush Festival. Adrienne is in fact going to be creating the art from a portion of the text I have written – but that’s another story! (Click on the links if you’re wanting to know more.)
The framed artwork above Adrienne is three-dimensional, with intricate paper cutouts. Exquisite!
Adrienne’s collection, ‘Calling Home‘ is currently on display at the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery (BRAG), accompanied by Andy Wilson’s soundscape. ‘The Vault’, is the perfect space for this immersive, surround-sound visual feast. Stunning!
Enter another world…
Enter ‘The Vault’ and you will experience a soundscape of the Subantarctic, including penguins (cue the memories!) skuas, seals and other native wildlife, and art of different sizes and dimensions, inspired by the penguins (individually and collectively) and the megaherbs of the Subantarctic region. There is so much to take in, and the grey-scale pallet is perfect – as are the select 3D pieces, with intricate cut-work.
Elephant seal greeting. You too can sit with the seals.
There are also seals! Yes – large as life real-deal elephant seal beanbags that you can nestle into, kick back and absorb the experience.
BRAG is running ‘Get Inked‘ – a kids’ holiday workshop with Adrienne, on 21st September. (Bookings are essential.) But meantime, I thought a little bit of poetry might be nice… Adrienne’s penguins were just crying out for some shape poetry wordplay.
Calling home: no cable, data, or credit needed.
I had so much fun with these! They’re inspired by the image in the background of Adrienne’s photos, above. A modified version may even work its way into one of two projects I’m working on at the moment… which is a lovely little bonus! (They were just the impetus I needed to dive back into my Antarctic verse novel. Yay!)
I’m a little kicking-self here, because Michelle Barnes is hosting Poetry Friday this week, and I’d have loved to post my Abecedarian poem, since that’s the challenge she’s running on Today’s Little Ditty this month – but I really wanted to get Adrienne’s post in today, before her workshop – so… no Abecedarian this week. I’ll have that here for you next week.
Meanwhile, Bundy peeps, you have until 22 October to get into the Art Gallery and be transported to the Subantarctic. Don’t miss this opportunity!
Kathryn Apel 
I love this project, and the wordplay in your poem is great fun! Thanks for sharing it, Kat!
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I love Adrienne’s art, and your poem is adorable!
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What a fun and inspiring exhibit! Your response poem is perfect., Kat. (Love that honking beak!) Together, you and Adrienne will surely make an artistic ruckus to be reckoned with!
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Heh – I’m just realising… this probably qualifies as an ekphrastic poem… yes? Every time I hear that word it sounds so learned and exotic, and I’ve wanted to write one. 😛 #maybeihave
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I love the glimpse you’ve given us of Adrienne’s Art. 3d art is amazing to me and I love the imagination it shows. Plus, also filled with creativity is your penguin shaped poem, Kat. Very fun to see and read!
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Glad you enjoyed, Linda(s), Tabatha and Michelle. I think I love shape poetry more and more and more. There is just so much you can do with it! And Adrienne’s artwork (and the accompanying soundscape) just brought the memories (and the words) all flooding in.
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Wonderful last lines — “Shrill the fill of krill-filling.” I love the idea of sounds inspiring poetry, with the additional layer of making the poem concrete, putting a shape around the sounds.
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Love the krill rhymes. What a great exhibit/immersive-experience. I wanted to write some poetry, too.
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Your poem and Adrienne’s art – what a joyous post!
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AMAZING – wish we could all partake of the exhibit in person, but your post, links, pictures and terrific poem offer the next best thing for sure. Thanks so much! Honk!
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What fun poems! I love all the connections between words and text and art and sound and back again.
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Wow wow wow! Love this artwork, and your word art is very clever and accomplished. It must have been hard to choose a font for that!
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It was, Heidi. I used a different font for each bird/poem. There is a third bird in the set (but not in these pics) which also has its own poem and font. All different – but of a similar style.
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Gorgeous, Kat, Gorgeous Kat! I love you enjoyed the show so much, and yep, I’m having a ball with your words on the text as art project… will sneak you a peek soon :-]
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So glad you liked, Adrienne. And I can’t wait to sneak a peek. 😛
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Oh, Kat! This is so cooooooool (pun is a must here). Really, you must have had a blast. I’m envious of the opportunity. I wish I could get there in person…..but alas, the ocean and all. Thanks for sharing. I’m ready to see more! more! more!
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Ooo! This is so neat! And the project as a whole seems wonderful.
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Hi Kat, Well I don’t think I can make it to the art gallery, although I’d love to, but I sure am glad I didn’t totally miss your blog post– what a treat this is visually and poetically! I love the shape of your shape poem, the fun movement in both the text and wordplay, wonderful, hope to see more of this project. And thanks for the trip through Adrienne Williams art exhibit and vault!
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So glad you all enjoyed a little peek at Adrienne’s stunning artwork. It was such fun, bringing the memories of our Antarctic experience into this penguin pair of poems.
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