拍品专文
Etel Adnan, a polymath celebrated for her art, literature, teachings and poetry weaves a world where drawings and words seamlessly intertwine within the pages of her leporellos. Adnan began creating leporellos – a book format with folded concertina-style pages – in the mid-1960s after being introduced to the traditional Japanese art format by Rick Barton in California. She would later become known for her signature leporellos, a medium that showcased her multifaceted nature and illuminated the depth and brilliance of her intellect.
To create these leoporellos, Adnan would often turn towards the words of Arabic poets and writers that shared her political and social beliefs. She would spread their words across the pages of the book and then respond and intervene with her own ‘words’ created through the visual marks and illustrations she produced on the pages.
In this 2001 leporello, Adnan turns to one of the most important and famous poems by one of her favourite Iraqi poets, Badr Shaker al-Sayyab, the same poet whose words she chose for her first leporello. Unshudat al Matar is a brilliant poem by al-Sayyab who is considered to be the father of modern Arabic poetry. Adnan writes his verses across the pages in different coloured pencils combining them with her watercolour marks to create compositions that are at once cinematic and evocative of the powerful verses of the poem. Adnan admired al-Sayyab greatly, and found in him the power of modern Arabic writing. Through her visual marks and the verses of al-Sayyab, this leporello brings forth a unique opportunity of the meeting of two great minds in a way that encapsulates their brilliance as artists and writers.
To create these leoporellos, Adnan would often turn towards the words of Arabic poets and writers that shared her political and social beliefs. She would spread their words across the pages of the book and then respond and intervene with her own ‘words’ created through the visual marks and illustrations she produced on the pages.
In this 2001 leporello, Adnan turns to one of the most important and famous poems by one of her favourite Iraqi poets, Badr Shaker al-Sayyab, the same poet whose words she chose for her first leporello. Unshudat al Matar is a brilliant poem by al-Sayyab who is considered to be the father of modern Arabic poetry. Adnan writes his verses across the pages in different coloured pencils combining them with her watercolour marks to create compositions that are at once cinematic and evocative of the powerful verses of the poem. Adnan admired al-Sayyab greatly, and found in him the power of modern Arabic writing. Through her visual marks and the verses of al-Sayyab, this leporello brings forth a unique opportunity of the meeting of two great minds in a way that encapsulates their brilliance as artists and writers.