Unfurl: Oil
poetry in conversation with performance
Oil
Something in the slick of it stays with me.
Bodies glisten as they urge towards an
end. Does it feel sticky? How long does it
take to wash away? What also lingers
is voice. One performer tells of being
teased but I am seduced by the richness
of their tone. Another is paid to voice
television, selling his timbre to
pay bills. We are teased too. Games played. A kind
of flirtation with boundaries where truth
blurs. Once the popcorn comes out and the oil
is poured our sense of centre slips away.
I’m given a beer during the show. I
don’t drink so feel that I should have said no.
Production:
a new collaboration between APHIDS’ Lara Thoms and artists Sammaneh Pourshafighi and Eden Falk.
Arts House 27 November – 1 December 2024
Attended Sunday 1 December November 2024
Unfurl is a subproject of Entanglings. I am posting a weekly poem in response to peformance works. I owe a debt to Rita Felski for the title, as she wrote about new approaches to critical writing (2015). I am working with the sonnet and other short forms in order to keep the project manageable and see what can be evoked with limited words. The poems are impressions, unedited, so they are a poetic documentation moreso than polished works. My aim is to build a conversation between poetry and performance and hopefully start some new conversations about different ways we can approach, generate and enjoy arts writing. If you enjoy it please subscribe or share with others!