Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Hammock by Terry Moyle




Editor: Orchid Tierney

Terry Moyle is a vector artist and a top-notch experimental poet. His debut book, Cominghomeland (Auckland: Ducks on the Wall Publishing), was published in 2011. He has an MA Hons (English) from the University of Waikato and currently resides in Kaiwaka, Northland. 

What I particularly enjoy about Terry's work is his diversity.  Ranging from comic strips to 3D milk cartons, his work pushes poetry off the page into real life tangible artefacts. In this way, his experimental works are suggestive of new forms of literacy where text, image and object are inextricably related.  Yet, if I can sum up briefly, I want to suggest that works like Terry's are conversations that challenge binary demarcations of high and low art. Comic strips and milk cartons-throw away items in consumer society-are rendered unique through the interface of poetic language. The resultant work is a new territory between old and new forms of text.

I'd also encourage you to view his challenging Ugly/Beauty poem found here, in which typefaces  exert unusual pressure on the textual meaning.
Want more Terry? Feel free to visit his website here.

Orchid Tierney is an MA student at the University of Otago.  She has numerous publications on and offline.  Her first book, Brachiation, was released from the Gumtree Press in 2012. She edits Rem Magazine, a journal dedicated to New Zealand experimental writing. Wander over to her personal website here.
 
Please take some time to experience the marvellous selections of poetry from the Tuesday Poem community. You can find these listed along at the sidebar.

6 comments:

Kathleen Jones said...

This is really interesting Orchid - it reminds me of the things that were being published in the 60s and 70s by the concrete and visual poets. I love this kind of play with words and images. Thanks for posting something so original!

Michelle Elvy said...

I came across Terry Moyle for the first time not too long ago -- at your site, Orchid. Really enjoy this approach. And I recall very well the Ugly/Beauty poem too. It makes an impression. I like the visual impact of this sort of thing because it goes beyond the line-by-line reading of poetry. An overall impact -- really interesting.

Anonymous said...

like :)

visit

Claire Beynon said...

I 'like', too. This is edgy work. Original. Boundary-pushing. Opening.

Thanks to you both, Orchid and Terry.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this Orchid and Terry. The artwork certainly reminds me of the sixties but it's not. That is actually profound even if it doesn't seem it! I found this whole exhibit of pictures and words very stimulating and enjoyed the poems on Terry's web. The idea that text itself is art which of course it is, has fascinated me for a long time.
I think at this point I will retreat to my hammock and think on it:-) via some more textual art of the prove you're not a robot style.

Terry said...

Thanks for the generous comments. Diversity of experimental poetics, in my case, a consequence of work going back many years. The meme or iconic duck is assisted by some familiarity with the work of comic book artist Carl Bark's. The unintelligible screen duck, transformed into an articulate 'Everyman' through Barks' huge oeuvre. The Duck deliberately illustrated to have as little as possible of the dynamic qualities of the archetype; the notion that visual expression is less desirable than a treatment which will ensure the visual elements are congruent with the primary texts. The 'z' or 'zed'.recurring in the image of the legs and lightning bolt etc also the use of visual forms (note the shape of the trees, speech bubbles) to confirm an association than runs parallel with the narration.