In celebration of Pride month, the School of English is proud to showcase an example of some wonderful work by one of our students.
As a part of her creative project for our third year module EN7290 Poetry Beyond Text: Image, Installation, Performance, final-year student Olivia Wing (English Literature and Creative Writing with a Year Abroad) has produced a collection of poetry films that explore her gender and sexuality.
The collection of poetry films, The Inextricable Woman, is a very ambitious and moving piece of work with a clear intellectual depth and structure. One of the pieces included in the collection is Fugitive, which features a highly energetic and vivid poem with an artfully filmed and edited video that features a visual reference to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and consistently finds subtle ways of reflecting the verbal content of the poem through cinematic imagery.
Watch Fugitive:
Of the poetry film, Olivia says: “Fugitive is an exhibition of fear experienced when holding hands with a same sex partner in public. My title encapsulates the dual meaning of the term ‘fugitive’; fugitive touches are the only safe way for gay couples to express affection publicly, and they may feel like fugitives for touching at all. My synthesis of colour, camera angles and sound creates a feeling of discomfort and panic, providing a glimpse into the lived existence of many non-heterosexual individuals. This poem elucidates the audience on a fear they may never experience themselves, and forces them to question the ease in which they exist in public alongside their partner.”