I’ve just booked a workshop that Cath Drake has organised. She gets top-notch poets and authors. Paul Hetherington is a distinguished scholar and poet. He has published 19 full-length collections of poetry and prose poetry. He has won or been nominated for over 50 national and international awards and competitions.

I have done Zoom workshops with Paul before and am excited at the chance to experiment more with what John Holland calls ‘notional ekphrasis’ – poetry describing artwork that ‘doesn’t exist except in poetry’s own fiction’. Some famous writing, of course, describes art that doesn’t exist, as in Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn and Homer’s account of Achilles’ shield in the Iliad.

Here is an early example I wrote. It was commended in the 14th Ware Open Poetry Competition, 2012, and published in the anthology.

Still casting a shadow

Two unused scratch cards, with the faintest whiff of orange. Found on the floor of the Lowry, Salford after a performance of The Love for Three Oranges by Opera North.
Purchased on eBay and donated by J Smith Esq.

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Patina and Pathos. Today’s lecture has been cancelled due (rest of notice torn off)

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Scale drawings and recipe for three-tiered wedding cake: SEX, three wedding cakes in the shape of capital letters S, E and X, with red, white and blue marzipan. Decorated with 24 small edible doves and placed in a French sleigh bed made of walnut.

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Spot the difference competition. Place your feet on the white X on the gallery floor for the best vantage point. Spot the differences between the wax model of an attendant and the live guard (seated). Put your form in the box.

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Bronze box, still casting a shadow, with burnished lid, bronze hinges and clasp, key missing. Age of box indeterminate, size varies daily depending on the swelling and shrinking of contents.

Writing prompt

1)

You may already have an idea, or even an object in mind. Or you may want to start with some notes or a drawing.

If you’re not sure, you could start with a specific museum as I did, or you can create one.

What does your notional gallery, museum look like? Is it a permanent or temporary building? Is there a garden or roof terrace which displays art?

What is the location: a city or town (real or imagined), or out in nature – dunes, a national park?

Will your work be public art – in or by a well-known building?

What is the ‘notional’ work? Is it a painting, sculpture, drawing, photograph, mixed media, collage, video, made of fabric or knitted?

Is it a single piece or is it composed of hundreds or thousands of items?

Are sounds involved, scent, or movement?

Perhaps, the notional work is out in nature, made of objects found, like in Andy Goldsworthy’s work?

Is the work interactive in some way? Perhaps, you’re there (like Marina Abramović) interacting with visitors?

2)

Is there a form that suits your imagined artwork? Fragments, like my prose poem? In stanzas, as a prose poem, or a concrete poem that uses the shape of your object?