Apus – Carolyn Waudby
| Title: | Apus |
| Publisher: | Red Ceilings Press |
| Author: | Carolyn Waudby |
| Publication date: | April, 2020 |
| Format: | A6 chapbook |
| Number of pages: | 42pp |
A collection of 20 poems written by Carolyn Waudby and inspired by the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has been published as a chapbook by The Red Ceilings Press.
The poetry arose from a multi-arts project for Mexican Day of the Dead, organised by the author and SHU colleague Dr. Elizabeth Uruchurtu.
A week-long series of public events in 2018 integrated original poetry, photography and live performance with exhibits and artefacts at The Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery.
In addition, text from some of the poems was superimposed over photographs taken by SHU art photographer Michèle Lazenby during a residency in Mexico and projected on a big screen.
“There’s no clear line between the real and the surreal, as Frida Kahlo’s paintings often testify. The poems in Apus navigate that same ambiguous terrain, elevating from the artist’s biography vivid and telling detail. Thick with colour, lit by pain, they hum with the same buzz of strangeness Kahlo found in the everyday.”
– Noel Williams
“These poems are characterised by a deft economy of expresssion and, reflecting Kahlo’s own iconography, combine symbolist edginess with insight and involvement. This is a compelling verse sequence, one to relish at first encounter and to keep returning to.”
– Colin Sutherill
Cover image: Rose Anna Waudby Ahmet
#poetry #art #DayoftheDead #Mexico #FridaKahlo #SIA
Carolyn Waudby is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University.
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