Bill Allen

ConTEXTure: A Conversation Between Artists in Two Forms
Sculptor Bill Allen and poet Fleda Brown engage in an artistic conversation between their two genres. Inspired by the completed poem, or the completed image, sculptor and poet each look for points of entry into the other's work: words, lines, objects, colors that evoke particular feelings. Fleda Brown writes, not to explain the sculpture, but to add the voice of the poem to its implications. When Bill Allen begins with a poem, he envisions what it says to him outside of language. He creates–not an illustration of the poem, but a tactile thought, a thought without words. When sculpture and poem are displayed together, the result is a dynamic interplay that pushes the limits of language and of image. How far can found items go toward articulation? How far can small words go toward making sense of our lives? Photos: Dietrich Floeter.

Click to watch the video. Credit David Poinsett.