Ekphrastic

Space and Time

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An etched woodcut in an abstract style. The entire work is in shades of black and white. In the center, there is the rough shape of the back of a bald human head, witha compass in the center. Above the compass flies a large hummingbird with its wings stretched upwards. The head shape narrows in to a neck and then out into shoulders that could be percieved as hills. On the right shoulder, there is a frog who stands on its hind legs and appears to be attempting to push the head away. Below all of this, there lies a small, venician-style gondola on a barely perceptible waters, which are bordered by illustrated water-plants and flowers. On both sides of the head, there is the illusion of smoke provided by a lighter section on the otherwise dark background. The smoke itself provides vision to a plethora of illustrated leaves.

Crossing and Wondering I, Yuemei Zhang, photo by Alana Borges Gordon

Space and Time: a haibun (after Yuemei Zhang’s Crossing and Wandering I)

the sky turns grey as a storm starts to form / time is warped & confused / her vision goes blurry as her eyes get ripped out of their sockets / it falls silent / the clouds start to spin as the wind turns into hands, grabbing at her mouth, bounding her speech / her internal clock starts to wind itself up / she grabs her head / pounding, about to burst / it drops dead again / silence. 

blind / deaf / dark / dangerous / she stands there, in an empty surreal field, afraid / the sky opens up & a faint buzzing of hope crosses right in front of her face / a little friend sent to collect worry / he beats his wings as hard as he can & collects the lost soul / her clock had ticked its last tock / another angel added to the collection / 6:44

Time leaves us broken

For we cannot change the past

You need to let go

Zhang’s original art was inspired by a line in Mark Twain’s novel The American Claimant: “It is a blessed thing to have an imagination that can always make you satisfied, no matter how you are fixed.”

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