for Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
one crystal angel
beyond the future
will be hanging his newest installation from a star
or perhaps a noted constellation
Orion let us say
the hunter of things whimsical and sorrowful
at the same time
we may float in gold and white and silken balloons
up there to see it
and a forbidding angel perhaps will say
go back
it's not time yet
for the future of these things
to be perceived.
mary angela douglas 30 may 2023
I saw an installation by Ai Weiwei: bicycle frames welded together into a spiral. I had been bicycling around Beijing, so seeing it gave me a sense of leaping upward. That was when autos were beginning to occupy the streets completely. A traditional image made remade by an imaginative leap.
I think that conceptual artists tend to be skeptical of the traditional imagery used to evoke transcendent experiences.
But it is prejudicial to say that conceptual art thrives on the breaking of old categories. It also liberates by conceiving of new categories. Such as a future installation in the starry heavens.
Conceptual art often tests the outer limits of art and its potential to generate meaning. Hence it often seems to be a saprophytic---growing off the decay of the old.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
In an earlier comment, I said that most of your poetry does not look to conceptual art as a source of imagery. Now I see that your range is broad enough to include it.