Loud Poems for Inside Voices
Loud Poems for Inside Voices: Together Yelling is a subset of an ongoing project titled KINDNESS ARTIFACTS, a collection of visual poem | poem objects. The Together Yelling pieces comprise a surprising gem formed in the space blasted out by a crushing blow. KINDNESS ARTIFACTS began as a need to write an injury, to grow meaning around a hurt language—like growing gems by iteration. The initial poems pooled despair and anger, but each gush somehow demanded a celebration of friends and self and for commentary laced with defiant smacks of goof. Together Yelling is a goof smack sprung from dazzling pain.
Together Yelling acts as both a diagram for utterance and as an object. Constructed from Hanji, Korean paper made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, the letters and substrate are merged together by a process of wetting and agitating the paper to fuse particles together. Fusing the paper by the quite sonic act of slapping, tapping, crumpling, and de-crumpling reflects the instruction and material of the pieces: a Together Yell hopes to fuse voices and space into an object of action and metaphor.