Title | Abandon |
Artist / Creator | Nanette Wylde |
Publication Date | 2004 |
Medium / Materials | Pigment prints, painted wood cover, ribbon. 14 original photographs by the artist. |
Number of Pages | 30 pages plus cover |
Dimensions (WxHxD) | 5 x 7 inches |
Edition Size | Edition of 5 |
For most of my adult life I have been periodically haunted by a poem I memorized as a child. The text would run through my head for days on end and then I wouldn't think of it at all for several years. In 2004, I decided to do something about this and created an art project around the poem, Abandon.
The project consisted of three pairs of children's sized chairs. Each pair was painted a different color — pink, blue, yellow. The pairs sat facing each other. On one chair was a framed portrait of a doll, approximately 14" x 20". The other chair contained headphones with a nine minute audio reading of the poem by a variety of voices. The gallery visitor sat on the chair with audio, listened to the poem while looking at the portrait across from her. This book was also a part of that larger installation.
Abandon juxtaposes a poem about the fleeting innocence and freedom of childhood with images of "abandoned" dolls.
Abandon (by Anonymous) This is a day for daisies, let us go like swallows down the highways of the air and we shall find the daisies like a snow suspended on the hills of everywhere. Give me your hand, through woodlands dark and sweet, we will float like the wanton feather with reckless hearts and summer haunted feet do not delay, we are not long together. For days of brief abandon will not come when we are underground so let us yield to the blood that battles in us like a drum and find the breast of beauty in a field. There will be days for tears and dust hereafter; this is a day for daisies and for laughter.Artist Bio