art - sculpture and assemblages

THREE CAMUSLUSTA GALLERY (Waternish, Isle of Skye)

07 August 2006

Kyra Clegg's body of work originally created for the St Andrews Poetry Festival is breathtaking. It displays a true connection to the spirit of Emily Dickinson's poetry which inspired it, and the figure of the poet. I found myself going back to these multilayered works which are stimulating and affecting. Working through a series of box constructions that comment on aspects of the poet's unique identity, work like 'The Night Garden' reveals the dark interior of the poems and the illumination of creative practice.

The poet's literal sensitivity to light and sensitivity to the gaze of others made her reclusive but unbelievably productive as a poet. Of 1800 poems written by Dickinson, only seven were published in her lifetime. The delicacy of New England butterfly specimens seen in what we feel are nineteenth century displays seem to communicate ideas of confinement and transformation beautifully.

The most poignant aspect of this exhibition is the distillation of these creative ideas into a sculptural cocoon form which is linked to the white dress that Dickinson wore. The white dress of the poet as a human being is perfected in the central sculpture and four smaller hanging panels of printed Perspex which surround it. The light in the gallery reflects through these panels, dancing around the central figure in patterns of transient light.

On the floor two lines of mirror shards lead into the cocoon form, gleaming with the iridescence of broken butterfly wings. Printed on each shard are the words 'I am feeling for the air'.

On the second floor four cocoon forms are suspended as delicate as if they had been spun by nature. The phrases 'I'm feeling for the air, my cocoon tightens, the power of the butterfly and a dim capacity for wings' are written minutely across their surfaces. They are enigmatic, containing the suggestion of freedom in nature's transformation that is expressed only as an aspiration in life and as the poet's words on the page.

		Cocoon review - HI-ARTS

	THREE CAMUSLUSTA GALLERY (Waternish, Isle of Skye) 07 August 2006 Kyra Clegg's body of work originally created for the St Andrews Poetry Festival is breathtaking. It displays a true connection to the spirit of Emily Dickinson's poetry which inspired it, and the figure of the poet. I found myself going back to these multilayered works which are stimulating and affecting. Working through a series of box constructions that comment on aspects of the poet's unique identity, work like 'The Night Garden' reveals the dark interior of the poems and the illumination of creative practice. The poet's literal sensitivity to light and sensitivity to the gaze of others made her reclusive but unbelievably productive as a poet. Of 1800 poems written by Dickinson, only seven were published in her lifetime. The delicacy of New England butterfly specimens seen in what we feel are nineteenth century displays seem to communicate ideas of confinement and transformation beautifully. The most poignant aspect of this exhibition is the distillation of these creative ideas into a sculptural cocoon form which is linked to the white dress that Dickinson wore. The white dress of the poet as a human being is perfected in the central sculpture and four smaller hanging panels of printed Perspex which surround it. The light in the gallery reflects through these panels, dancing around the central figure in patterns of transient light. On the floor two lines of mirror shards lead into the cocoon form, gleaming with the iridescence of broken butterfly wings. Printed on each shard are the words 'I am feeling for the air'. On the second floor four cocoon forms are suspended as delicate as if they had been spun by nature. The phrases 'I'm feeling for the air, my cocoon tightens, the power of the butterfly and a dim capacity for wings' are written minutely across their surfaces. They are enigmatic, containing the suggestion of freedom in nature's transformation that is expressed only as an aspiration in life and as the poet's words on the page. © Georgina Coburn, 2006

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