About the work

Words were drawn from texts I encountered over the weeks of ‘lockdown’, and the images selected from my stack of collage materials. These were edited by erasure, translation, and recombination. The texts respond to their sources, but transpose associations to novel social and political behaviour. The impulse to respond creatively finds itself faced with arguments in favour of action, and a counter rationale for inaction. The poems emerged despite this. Contexts include the work of Louis Zukofsky, Hannah Weiner, OuLiPo, and Bernadette Mayer.

A downloadable version of the poetry text is available here.

About the artist

Mark Leahy is a Devon-based writer and artist. Live work includes ‘Breath Pieces’ (Tramway, 2018); ‘telling time’ (Jamboree, 2018); ’threaded insert’ (PAW, 2017). Publications include Swatches (Acts of Language, 2009), Subject to Gesture (Dock Road Press, 2017) and essays in Hyperrhiz, C21 Literature, Open Letter, and Performance Research Journal.

Mark Leahy is the copyright holder to all images in this online exhibition. No reproduction of any of these images may be made without the permission of the copyright holder.