Guest Blogger - Rachel Carney
If you like art, writing and ideas then the Ekphrastic Challenge Poetry Competition is for you! ‘Ekphrastic poetry’ is poetry which has been written in response to a piece of visual art. It can be descriptive, interpretive or provocative. It can create alternative perspectives and play with the readers’ expectations. It can question the artist’s intentions, the point of art itself, or its own existence, creating a conversation between artist, writer, reader and viewer.
To take part, all you have to do is get out and about during the Made in Roath festival, and have a look at the artwork on display. Find something interesting… one of the paintings featured in the Open exhibition perhaps, or something a bit more quirky in one of the open house displays… and take a photo of it. So long as it’s visual, displayed as part of Made in Roath and created by an artist, it will count.
Then you will have just a few days to write a poem in response. Send your poem (along with a photo of whichever artwork you wrote about) to me (Rachel Carney) via email rachel@createdtoread.com by 5pm on Friday 20th October. Please include your name, email and phone number, plus information about the artwork (artist’s name, title of piece, where you saw it).
The poems will be judged by local writers Mab Jones and Rhys Milsom, and they’ll announce the winner on Sunday 22nd – the last day of the festival. The winning poem will be published right here, on the Made in Roath blog, and displayed for a short time at the ‘Three Doors Up’ art space in Queen’s Arcade (part of Arcade Cardiff). The winner will also receive a £15 book token and a fascinating book on world art, purchased from Cardiff’s very own Aladdin’s Cave (aka Troutmark Books).
You could also come along to The Gate on Tuesday 17th October, where I’ll be running my usual ekphrastic writing group ‘From Paint to Page’ (7.45-9.30pm). It’s a monthly group, and this one will be themed around the Made in Roath Open Exhibition. To find out more about the group, and see some examples of ekphrastic writing, visit my blog.