Wednesday, September 4, 2013

I've been saving this one (Marie Wintzer replies to the Bowie card)

This is what happens, sometimes. I get far behind and can't even seem to make a mark of any sort because the barriers mount and without a long stretch of grass to fling an ariel cartwheel in it just seems impossible.  So I play games.  I stack things.  I make myself promises.  I practice the art of patience, badly. 

and now on the cusp of being caught up briefly, I come to Marie's mail. Feast your eyes on this!


It was hard to imagine how I could convey to you the lightness, the whimsy of this piece.  Each of the five thin plastic squares is afixed with a (trademark) paper clip.  You can rotate the layers, over turning the reality of  the images - the images that make you want to enter them, so full of the stuff of life.

Marie has called this Kaleidopo.  For me it's Lucy in the Sky in the Diamonds, kinda stuff. I believe she has acheived the effect with tape transfers on acetate.

So ingenious, so compellingly tactile and curious.


Marie's envelope is iconic, hinting at some of the other goodies that are inside. The inside is an endless sea of campbells soup cans. I have hidden Marie's address with some of my plastic.  Do I need to hide Marie's address, I've never asked?
Inside, the dreamiest photography, that makes me want to sing, 'Fashion! Turn to the left. Fashion! turn to the right...beep beep' Marie creates a peculiar tension that makes me want to look briefly and then to feel as if in a moment I may need to look away.

And then, the words.  THE WORDS.  How many languages does Marie speak? So many favourite lines in these words, for the relationships, for the sounds, for the way it all looks, for the ambiguous language, for the sense and nonsense.

Marie tells me that her poem is inspired by a David Bowie card I sent.  I wan to hold my hand up right now and take any credit Marie wants to give me, but honestly folks, she did it all herself, and SO perfectly.


1 comment:

  1. What a wonderful blog, Rebecca. Talking about words, the words found on these pages of yours are equally enchanting and powerful. Reading them this morning, I feel that my day can only be a good one. It's a present. What can I say, thank you dearly...
    (ah, no, you don't have to hide my address) :-)

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