What’s the relationship between art and literature? ‘Troubled’ is probably a fair assessment: both appear to have the same aims, and in the best examples in both fields, there is a convergence of what seem like the necessary conditions upon what seems like the necessary response, be it in a haiku, a novel, a brushstroke, a performance, etc. Such is perhaps the romanticised ideal of how works of art and literature are made, but when they attempt to describe each other – prose about a painting, for example, or vice versa – things often fall apart.
Probably the best art about writing, and the best writing about art, can only be made when each side approaches the other obliquely. Something or some aspect of a poem may connect with something or some aspect in a drawing, and the result is works in both mediums that can stand on their own. I am thinking around this topic because of a launch we have tomorrow. Being launched is Marks, a publication in which six artist-writer pairings have each taken over four pages of the publication, to do with what they wished. I find the results very exciting. If you can make the launch, it’s from 6 to 8 pm in Studio 6, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. You should be able to buy it online here from Thursday; more info on the publication here.