We Are Crow
I have returned to birds for this show by focusing on two poems from the Ted Hughes Crow collection from 1970 (and the wonderful illustrations of Leonard Baskin) - Crow and the Birds and Crow hears Fate Knocking at the Door (published in 1971's edition). One is full of our beautiful, feathered friends found in the poem, a tale of how the birds mainly are flying away from human interaction, except Crow. Each bird has its own poetic line, many of those mentioned are regular visitors to the garden, especially at this time of year when I’m feeding them. The poem finishes with this line.
“Crow spraddled head-down in the beach garbage, guzzling a dropped ice-cream”. In the whole collection Crow is depicted quite how society sees them in real life but also with very human traits.
The other poem is my favourite, it is full of beautiful, strong words that make you project into space. It concerns Crow investigating the Universe, taking things apart, trying to understand how it all goes together. It ends with a defiant prophecy “I WILL MEASURE IT ALL AND OWN IT ALL, AND I WILL BE INSIDE IT, AS INSIDE MY OWN LAUGHTER….” As if to convince themselves they are not going mad. I have depicted this poem quite darkly, using screen printed words, layered chaotically and low-fired black glass powders bringing a lot of texture to the work.
A new collection of cast pieces is included in this show, my ongoing commitment to keep my practice as sustainable as possible. I have used previous work that still has my signature mark making in powders and selected colours and patterns that would work well with my chaotic, layered experience of Crow throughout the poem.
All images Euan Adamson
The Scottish Gallery
Edinburgh
March - April 2024
0 comments