AN art exhibition exploring the spirituality of nature in the poetry of the American poet, Mary Oliver opens on Sherkin Island shortly.
From the afternoon of Thursday August 27th until September 2nd, an exhibition called The Heavenly (In)Visibles goes on display featuring the work of artist Patsy Atkinson.
The exhibition is part of her MA by Research at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design, with the thesis entitled materialisation of the spirituality of nature in the poetry of Mary Oliver in contemporary textile art practice.
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Patsy told The Southern Star her research bridges literary analysis, philosophy, spirituality, poetry and textile art making to illuminate the poet’s deep reverence for nature.
In keeping with Mary Oliver’s creative processes, Patsy uses slow, meditative and nature-based processes, including eco-printing, paper-making, mono-printing and natural dyeing using plants sustainably foraged from the hedgerows of Sherkin Island.
‘As the landscapes of Provincetown were imbued into the poetry of Mary Oliver, my work captures the minutiae of nature and the colours and stillness of this beautiful West Cork island,’ said Patsy.
The artworks in this exhibition echo key themes that emerged through Patsy’s thematic analysis of Oliver’s poetry: presence, inter-connection, attention, animism and transcendence.
Patsy said she wanted her work to honour Mary Oliver’s constant call to notice the beauty of nature. She explained that her research revealed that the Library of Congress in Washington DC holds all the poet’s papers, including a box containing 130 of the 3” x 5” notebooks she carried with her on her daily walks in nature.
‘There was something so poignant about discovering this because those precious notebooks held all the notes she had made in the wild to feed her poetry.’
Patsy’s research also incorporated a collaboration with contemporary poets. Thirty poets responded to her interim artworks with original poems rooted in her research topic. The poets included Cork poets, Colm Scully, Paudrig Lee, Anne Rath, Bernadette Gallagher and Jennifer Horgan.
Patsy materialised the poems into a meandering, handmade book to honour Mary Oliver’s meditative walks in nature. She also created three wall-mounted scrolls with the poems printed onto silk organza.
Patsy hopes that her exhibition nurtures awareness of how empathetic engagement with the natural world and its spiritual energy can lead to more respect for nature, particularly during this time of ecological peril.
