“Lighght.”
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 the concrete 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