I am drawn to stitched text and its performative potential. Instances where words are working beyond being legible and comprehensible and becoming something more...an artwork, a movement, a feeling. This is where I have been sitting with Edwin Morgan’s poetry, specifically ‘A Little Catechism From The Demon’ (1999) and ‘opening the cage: 14 variations on 14 words - i have nothing to say and i am saying it and that is poetry (john cage)’ (1966); one for the feeling and one for the artwork.
When Morgan’s demon states, ‘What is a demon? Study my life’, I felt like I had said these words myself many times to no one in particular and everyone all the same. ‘Study the demon.’ ‘Study my life.’ ‘Set out now.’ These are honest words, action words and, for me, autobiographical. Life has been full of demons. I have fought them, and the fight has never been quite fair. Now, I am learning to study them, and see that the demons are a part of me. I cannot be me without them, but they cannot live without me because they are mine. So, I study them, study my life, and make our fights fair (set it out).