Word Order. Concrete Poetry and Its influence

13 May - 17 June, 2006

During the annual Aberdeen University ‘Word Festival’, Peacock visual arts presents 'Word Order', an exhibition curated by the Cairn gallery in Pittenweem. The exhibition explores the historical and inspirational link between poetry and visual art.

Throughout the Sixties and early Seventies, Concrete Poetry was one of the most lively movements in the arts, involving a fertile interaction between poets, artists and early sound artists. Treating the poem as an object, to be carefully constructed from basic linguistic elements, it paralleled a similar 'turn to language' in philosophy and in the visual arts.

Now often overlooked, the influence of Concrete Poetry continues to be felt in the work of a few poets and in that of many artists working with text.

'Word Order' includes historical material, such as publications and prints by important Scottish concrete poets Edwin Morgan and Ian Hamilton Finlay, together with more recent work in the constructed poem.

It also features new wall pieces and screen prints by Scottish artists David Bellingham, Thomas A Clark, Julie Johnstone and Alec Finlay. The screen prints have been editioned by Peacock printmakers.

Later this summer the exhibition tours to The Changing Room in Stirling.

• Special events
• - Saturday 13 May 5.30pm: Reading by writer/polemicist Tom Leonard. Tickets are free but limited. Please call 01224-273874 for bookings and details.
• - Saturday 20 May 3pm: "And I too am a painter". Twentieth-Century Visual Poetry in France, Italy and Scotland. Reading by prof. Peter Read. Admission free.

For more information on Aberdeen University 'Word Festival' click here