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Dictionary Poem Project

by Jane Birdsall-Lander

March 6 – April 10, 2020
High Low Gallery

The Dictionary Poem Project is an ever-expanding list of words with pronunciations, etymologies, definitions, graphics, and other information.  Each word’s “meaning” evolves from its standard origin and definition finally becoming a “dictionary poem” that is more associative, graphic and poetic than a particular word’s conventional meaning.  For me, the Dictionary Poem Project is the starting point for an experience, a journey into the center of language, design and the human condition.

I start with a particular word, a word of my choosing or perhaps a word that has chosen me, who can say for certain. At first look, I never know if a particular word will partner with me. To do so we both must crack ourselves open, to relinquish control. We must work together, move together through unknown territory. I wonder what will happen if I let the fact of a word lead me? Will it open to reveal its cache of intuitive knowledge? Am I even capable of reading its store?  Together the word and I take a hard look into our shared pool to discover whether we are at a dead-end or if together we will take the leap. Finally, when a poem text is complete, I work on visual imagery that springs from the language itself. 

The Dictionary Poem Project is artwork that I make outside my usual studio practice which is focused mainly on three-dimensional forms but has also included paintings and installations of three-dimensional work and original poems arranged with sculpture and objects in such a way as to create an environment. Thematically all my work grapples with the relationship between language and object or image.

My goal is to get the dictionary poems out into people’s lives where they can work their magic.  Perhaps just for a moment, these small artworks may create a clearing within whatever landscape the reader inhabits, blue sky pooled within each of us, each of us touching one heart to every living thing. *from the dictionary poem, world peace.

The Dictionary Poem Project exhibition at The High Low Literary Cafe is the inaugural show for Edition II and the first time both Edition I and II will be exhibited together. 

The Dictionary Poem Project, Edition  II was funded in part by an Artist Support Grant from the Regional Arts Commission.