Light Sentence

Light Sentence (1992) by Mona Hatoum

[Image source: http://www.artnews.com/2015/10/30/mona-hatoum-at-centre-pompidou/ . Photo by Philippe Migeat at the Centre Pompidou.]




light through
a wire cage casts


shadows, induces vertigo;




(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")

Near Cloud (1964) by Peter Lanyon

[Image source: http://studiointernational.com/index.php/soaring-flight-peter-lanyons-gliding-paintings-review-courtauld-gallery-london]






that line, a strut or cliff edge
a sudden dip or buffet
a broad slash of blue




(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")

Right side of the diptych Mr & Mrs/Mrs & Mr Heart (2012) by Basil King

[Image source: http://www.blog.basilking.net/after-the-movie/]




The face could be
lunar, its craters


the glint of an eye,
bend sinister of the mouth;


half is in eclipse,
an orange shadow,




(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")

Detail of Un enterrement à Ornans (1849-1850) by Gustave Courbet

(Image source: cropped from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Courbet_-_A_Burial_at_Ornans_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg )




The cliffs of Ornan appear
as they do through the gallery window,


the local characters enlarged, a bourgeois presumption
to be bigger than Napoleon (a short man),


to inhabit a large canvas, as though
worthy of the academy.


(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")

Three Legged Man AP 1973 (1973), lithograph by Alexander Calder

[Image source: https://www.artbrokerage.com/Alexander-Calder]






an absence, suggested
by continuous line


so the testes become a leg
an elbow becomes a signature


the space enclosed
animate;


(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")

Detail of Entrata degli animali nell'arca di Noè (1570) by Jacopo Bassano

(Image source: cropped from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Animals_Entering_Noah%27s_Ark_1570s_Jacopo_Bassano.jpg)


Light breaks (or fades) over a distant mountain
but the figures in the foreground are too intent


to notice, animals martialled up a ramp in pairs,
eggs collected in a basket. The humans


bundle possessions, sort copper pans, have
no time to view even the rising water.


(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")

Winter Evening, Primrose Hill Study (1974-75) by Frank Auerbach

[Image source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/07/frank-auerbach-exhibition-tate-britain-review. Photo by David Lambert and Rod Tidnam]




down Primrose Hill
two lights, feeble in middle ground,
hemmed in by shrubbery




(Laurie Duggan, from "Afterimages")