ABOUT SWITCHEROOSTurnabout is fair play. The best way we can think to repay the pool of artists who have been creating work for Broadsided is to offer them an opportunity to see how writers might respond to their work. In a Switcheroo, we invite writers to submit poetry and prose in response to a piece of visual work created by one of the Broasdided artists.
Keep an eye on Broadsided for future Switcheroos. We hope to do two a year. |
Editor's Note
The reception to Broadsided's first Switcheroo was wonderful, with many poets and prose writers sending their submissions and responses. Each entry offered its own joys; each poem or story chose a slightly different platform to leap from. In the end, Anna Mueller's "Dishes" surprised and delighted us, capturing the deep feeling of Anya Ermak-Bower's art in a completely unexpected way.
Timing is a funny thing. Today, the day before this Broadsided Switcheroo was to go live, we opened the March/April issue of The Writer's Chronicle to see an article by Lauren Rusk titled "The Possibilities and Perils of Writing Poems about Visual Art." In it, she talks about poems that successfully leap from visual art into a conversation all their own, leaping toward verse that enlarges rather than recapitulates its inspiration.
For us, The Switcheroo was a fascinating glimpse into the convergence of visual and literary art. What does a triptych of a lone sledder on a harsh mountain have to do with a mother washing dishes? We hope you'll feel the truth of the relationship when you download the broadside.
Our thanks to out to all writers who sent in their creative responses, and we hope to do more Switcheroos in the future.
Liz Bradfield and Mark Temelko
Editors, www.broadsidedpress.org
Notes on Process
All Broadsided artists were invited to submit up to three pieces of work. We then asked an outside judge, Lynn Stanley, to review the submissions, choosing one that she thought would be open to literary response and would work in the Broadsided format.
She chose the image below, "Whatever it Takes to See the Sunrise" (colored pencil and ink on tinted paper; 8" x 10"), by artist Anya Ermak-Bower.
Of the process, Stanley said:
The primary goal was to choose work that would engage poets and become a broadside. In terms of personal aesthetics my first inclination was towards the less representational pieces and a number of submitted works contained emotional ambiguities that could serve as interesting points of departure.
In the process of making a final choice, however, I realized that I've become interested in when and how I resist works of art—and then to examine that position. My initial response to the drawing series was to dismiss it—the drawings have a slightly cartoonish quality and the narrative elements are obvious.
As I revisited the work I came to appreciate what I identify as a combination of wistfulness and earnestness. The series—its color palette and flat, simplified forms—reminds me of Japanese woodblock prints. I became attracted to what I'd characterize as emotional transparency or the "heart" of the work. I'm particularly drawn to the image on the far left and the feeling of pushing through.
Thank-you for the opportunity to participate in a visual-verbal dialogue and to all the artists who submitted work.
Lynn Stanley
(Stanley's bio)
"Whatever it Takes to See the Sunrise" (colored pencil and ink on tinted paper; 8" x 10"), by Anya Ermak-Bower
[ Download "Dishes" (328kb pdf file). Back to the Archives. ]
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