Poem Objects
Caleb Jamel Brown, Peggy Chiang, Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand, Garrett Lockhart, Cyrilla Mozenter, Winona Sloane Odette, Isaac Pool
“The origins of poetry are clearly rooted in obscurity, in secretiveness, in incantation, in spells that must at once invoke and protect, tell the secret and keep it.”1
Poem Objects assembles self-recursive artworks that speak at the periphery of language. Among them exists a propensity for language-like utterance, the use of language as mark, or language as framework. They facilitate expressions of an eternally locked, private or obscure narrative. They portend: poetry is more object than objective; also, that the threshold of comprehension is a portal. Here exists the extralinguistic space of contradiction that behaves like a whirlpool or blackhole. Each artwork tracks a path of infinite regress, by the fate of its own internal logic, to a third space where there are flowers. “The flowers just pour upwards / to be organized towards sugar / why not”2
Resisting straightforward communication is the poem rejecting its own trappings; the poem objects to the force of naming through an unbending abstraction. A spell is cast—as when dusk disappears the light’s descriptions—and the mind builds its fictions.
2. Robertson, Lisa. 3 Summers, Coach House Books, Toronto, 2016, p. 13.
Press Release
Caleb Jamel Brown (b.1993, Atlanta, GA) is a multidisciplinary artist and plumber who lives and works between Atlanta, GA and Brooklyn, NY. He holds a BFA from Valdosta State University and has participated in residencies throughout the United States and abroad including Shandaken: StormKing, New Windsor, NY; Mass MOCA, Williamstown, MA; Coleman Arts Center, York, AL; PATA, Lodz, Poland; Proyecto Ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Aviario, Portugal. Caleb is a 2022 Working Artist Project recipient and a Mint Leap Year Fellow 2020.
Peggy Chiang (b. 1989, San Francisco, CA) lives and works in New Brunswick, NJ. She received her MFA in Visual Arts at Rutgers University in 2022.
Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand (b. 1995, Montreal, Canada) lives and works in Montreal, Canada. She draws, makes objects and sings.
Garrett Lockhart (b. 1994, Snuneymuxw Territory/Nanaimo, Canada) lives and works in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. Recent solo exhibitions include Relay at Pumice Raft, Toronto; Wrought Bundle at Afternoon Projects, Vancouver; and Mudflat Pavilion at PS311 Ottawa, Canada. Recent group exhibitions include Still Making Art Volume 04 at KS28; Separation, Alignment, Cohesion at Laurel Project Space; Dweller at Tilde, all Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Do You Like Worms? at Gazebo, Newark, DE; and Desk Show at Collision’s Craft, Baltimore, MD. They recently participated in the Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art 2022: Deep Ecology in the Cognitive Capitalocene in New York, NY. They will show new work in Hunt Gallery, and Joys, both Toronto, Canada, in 2022-23.
Cyrilla Mozenter (b. 1947, Newark, NJ) lives and works in Stony Point, NY. Solo exhibitions include See Why and the failed utopian, Lesley Heller Gallery, New York; the failed utopian & Other Stories, FiveMyles, Brooklyn; warm snow, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York, and the Garrison Art Center, Garrison; Very well saint, The Drawing Center, New York, NY; and More saints seen, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Octave, her bilingual collaborative book with photographer Philip Perkis was published in 2020 by anmoc press, Seoul. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, she has also received two fellowships from the NY Foundation for the Arts and two project grants from The Fifth Floor Foundation. She has been in residence at Pianpicollo Selvatico, Dieu Donné Papermill, and Instituto Municipal de Arte e Cultura-Rioarte. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Brooklyn Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery. She taught for many years in the MFA program at Pratt Institute.
Winona Sloane Odette (b. 1998, Minneapolis, MN) lives and works in Queens, NY. She studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Cooper Union. Recent group exhibitions include Plaza, The Cooper Union; Use tools, make other tools, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY; and Bunk Notes, Pilot Projects, Philadelphia, PA.
Isaac Pool (b. 1988, Detroit, MI) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Pool has performed and exhibited internationally with solo shows in New York, Detroit, and Brussels. A book of poems and photographs in print, Light Stain, is available from What Pipeline, Detroit, and Alien She, an ebook dedicated to Mark Aguhar, is available from Klaus eBooks.
Poem Objects
Caleb Jamel Brown, Peggy Chiang, Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand, Garrett Lockhart, Cyrilla Mozenter, Winona Sloane Odette, Isaac Pool
Poem Objects
Caleb Jamel Brown, Peggy Chiang, Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand, Garrett Lockhart, Cyrilla Mozenter, Winona Sloane Odette, Isaac Pool
“The origins of poetry are clearly rooted in obscurity, in secretiveness, in incantation, in spells that must at once invoke and protect, tell the secret and keep it.”1
Poem Objects assembles self-recursive artworks that speak at the periphery of language. Among them exists a propensity for language-like utterance, the use of language as mark, or language as framework. They facilitate expressions of an eternally locked, private or obscure narrative. They portend: poetry is more object than objective; also, that the threshold of comprehension is a portal. Here exists the extralinguistic space of contradiction that behaves like a whirlpool or blackhole. Each artwork tracks a path of infinite regress, by the fate of its own internal logic, to a third space where there are flowers. “The flowers just pour upwards / to be organized towards sugar / why not”2
Resisting straightforward communication is the poem rejecting its own trappings; the poem objects to the force of naming through an unbending abstraction. A spell is cast—as when dusk disappears the light’s descriptions—and the mind builds its fictions.
2. Robertson, Lisa. 3 Summers, Coach House Books, Toronto, 2016, p. 13.
Press Release
Caleb Jamel Brown (b.1993, Atlanta, GA) is a multidisciplinary artist and plumber who lives and works between Atlanta, GA and Brooklyn, NY. He holds a BFA from Valdosta State University and has participated in residencies throughout the United States and abroad including Shandaken: StormKing, New Windsor, NY; Mass MOCA, Williamstown, MA; Coleman Arts Center, York, AL; PATA, Lodz, Poland; Proyecto Ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Aviario, Portugal. Caleb is a 2022 Working Artist Project recipient and a Mint Leap Year Fellow 2020.
Peggy Chiang (b. 1989, San Francisco, CA) lives and works in New Brunswick, NJ. She received her MFA in Visual Arts at Rutgers University in 2022.
Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand (b. 1995, Montreal, Canada) lives and works in Montreal, Canada. She draws, makes objects and sings.
Garrett Lockhart (b. 1994, Snuneymuxw Territory/Nanaimo, Canada) lives and works in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. Recent solo exhibitions include Relay at Pumice Raft, Toronto; Wrought Bundle at Afternoon Projects, Vancouver; and Mudflat Pavilion at PS311 Ottawa, Canada. Recent group exhibitions include Still Making Art Volume 04 at KS28; Separation, Alignment, Cohesion at Laurel Project Space; Dweller at Tilde, all Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Do You Like Worms? at Gazebo, Newark, DE; and Desk Show at Collision’s Craft, Baltimore, MD. They recently participated in the Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art 2022: Deep Ecology in the Cognitive Capitalocene in New York, NY. They will show new work in Hunt Gallery, and Joys, both Toronto, Canada, in 2022-23.
Cyrilla Mozenter (b. 1947, Newark, NJ) lives and works in Stony Point, NY. Solo exhibitions include See Why and the failed utopian, Lesley Heller Gallery, New York; the failed utopian & Other Stories, FiveMyles, Brooklyn; warm snow, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York, and the Garrison Art Center, Garrison; Very well saint, The Drawing Center, New York, NY; and More saints seen, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Octave, her bilingual collaborative book with photographer Philip Perkis was published in 2020 by anmoc press, Seoul. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, she has also received two fellowships from the NY Foundation for the Arts and two project grants from The Fifth Floor Foundation. She has been in residence at Pianpicollo Selvatico, Dieu Donné Papermill, and Instituto Municipal de Arte e Cultura-Rioarte. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Brooklyn Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery. She taught for many years in the MFA program at Pratt Institute.
Winona Sloane Odette (b. 1998, Minneapolis, MN) lives and works in Queens, NY. She studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Cooper Union. Recent group exhibitions include Plaza, The Cooper Union; Use tools, make other tools, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY; and Bunk Notes, Pilot Projects, Philadelphia, PA.
Isaac Pool (b. 1988, Detroit, MI) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Pool has performed and exhibited internationally with solo shows in New York, Detroit, and Brussels. A book of poems and photographs in print, Light Stain, is available from What Pipeline, Detroit, and Alien She, an ebook dedicated to Mark Aguhar, is available from Klaus eBooks.