by Rose Rushe
I AM making an exception in this series of flashes from Limerick City of Culture anthology ‘Dream of City’ with the poem ‘On Waiting at Four O’Clock’. It’s by one of Dream’s featured poets, Paul Sweeney.
Sweeney and painter Gavin Hogg together created ‘The City’ a decade ago, a weighty book of vellum leaf and original prints by Hogg that correspond in ways obvious and not to Sweeney’s text. For ‘The City’, the writer looked to works by Egyptian poet CP Cafavy whose constant light was the city of Alexandria.
Why is this relevant? Because in City Gallery at Pery Square this Thursday 11 at 6.30pm, Hogg and Sweeney revisit their 2006-published ‘The City’, the poet reading, the painter to open out the visual and spiritual inspiration that informed his art. I have stolen this from Hogg’s facebook page – his timeline has always been generous to other painters/ artists whom he respects.
On Waiting At Four O’clock
When finally it occurred to me to stop refilling seed
Only then did I see that the wren, that smallest of birds,
Ate in grandeur, alone, through the lowest bar.
*
Later, the pale silver of the winter sun
Shining through the lines of the empty cage
Was like the beauty of a sleeping body.
*
How low too the light of love shines for me now,
So that what I turn over and over in my mouth
Now seems to me, the most noble, the emptiest of feasts.
*Artist’s Note
Gavin Hogg has exhibited widely in Ireland (EVA award winner’93), his work is included in many public and private collections. Printmaking is important, he showing regularly in the graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin. As a member of Limerick Printmakers he has participated in group shows in Berlin and London in 2012 and future projects such as China in 2016.
Gavin is a regular visitor to New York where he has held three Open Studio events at Point B, Williamsburg in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Last year he had solo exhibitions in Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaois and in the Triskel Christchurch, Cork. In October 2014 He exhibited in a group show at the New York Foundation for the Arts, and most recently this January in ’18 x 18′ at Point B, Williamsburg, NY.
In early 2012 he completed a course in Jungian Psychology with Art Therapy in Clonmel LIT, which has impacted on recent work. His show ‘Shadow Light’ is current at LCGA.
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Paul Sweeney was born in Limerick and attended University of Limerick. He is co-founder of CUISLE Poetry Festival. He has one self-published book, ‘The City’ produced in collaboration with Gavin.
