Global Poetry System continues its quest to map the poetry found on the landscapes of the world. Recently we’ve also been getting in touch with some of the long-term ‘Global Poets’ who have made GPS the far reaching and fascinating forum for poetry that it has become. Those of you who are frequent visitors to the site will be familiar with the growing collection of stones and their scribblings that are punctuating the sands down at South Sea. Over 200 poetic pebbles like these exist as part of an inspiring project pioneered by visual artist and teacher David G Kirby. But what is David’s motivation behind the project, and does he consider himself a poet? We asked David for a short interview to find out.
How do you decide what to write on the stones? Where do you get your inspiration?
One of my tutors once described me as a magpie for ideas. I like that. Words and phrases pop into my head any time. They come from topical events, things I’ve done, or read, general knowledge, requests, dialogues, overheard conversations, lyrics – pretty much anything is fair game. I love to find a thread and pursue it to see what I can get out of it. My subjects broadly encompass themes of duality, community, continuity and change.
What reaction would you hope to get from people who discover
a stone? Is this one of the motivations behind the project?
I hope the range of writing is broad enough that everyone who finds a stone or looks at the archive will find a favourite. (In addition the ones on the GPS site, there are over 200 photos currently online here.) I enjoy the fact that readers will bring their own associations to the project and find resonances of all kinds. And the same is true of other work I have seen on the GPS site, which is one of the reasons why I love the whole idea of ‘street’ poetry. The motivation is simply the urge to write and be creative rather than anything else. It is immensely satisfying; a real bonus that people are enjoying the project and that it’s successful on that level as well.
Do you class this as a poetry project, or something else? Do you consider yourself a poet?
There has always been an element of writing or text in my art practice and a focus on producing work independently of traditional institutional access to resources. I really enjoy the freedom of being part of the ‘Street Art’ culture that has grown in recent years. For me, the stones come more from an urge to write creatively rather than poetry per se. I prefer to think of myself as a visual artist who writes.
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Born in North London, David studied Illustration at the University of Portsmouth and made artist’s books for a number of years. He started teaching Art at Secondary level in 2003 and continues to make and present artwork in various forms in the UK and abroad.
Global Poetry System is a user-generated world map of poems. You can explore David’s colelction and upload your own poems here.
Filed under: Global Poetry System
This scldeuhe looks great, and it's filled with books I want to read. (I'm also willing to read The Tale of Genji with you next year, so we can talk about that if you want.) I absolutely Cannot Wait for the release of 1Q84 which has been teasing me since its release in Japanese so long ago. Well, long for one who's waiting to read it in English! I'll be joining you for all the choices you have listed after April.
[...] together 60 or so of the photographs for you to enjoy. The stones have also been featured on the GPS website by the South Bank Centre, London. The project also has it’s own group on Flickr, at [...]
Thanks for the interview GPS.