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Swimming Ginger
The Qingming Shanghe Tu scroll, sometimes called "Spring Festival by the River," was thought to have been painted by Zhang Zeduan before 1127, when the Northern Song capital of Bian-Iiang was overrun by the invading Jin. Inspired by the figures in the scroll, Geddes found stories demanding to be told, tales of the droll, exacting, sometimes turbulent life of cities. In shimmering verse, Geddes captures the voice of the painter himself and those of the underprivileged, with their not-so-subtle forms of dissent. Cleverly illustrated to intertwine East and West in dialogue, this ingenious volume juxtaposes a reproduction of the scroll that reads from back to front (experienced as Chinese reads) with Geddes' poems, which read from front to back.
94 pages, Paperback
First published July 30, 2010
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December 7, 2010
Victoria resident Gary Geddes has published more than 35 books over his long and distinguished career.
His new collection of poetry, Swimming Ginger (Goose Lane, 96 pages, $20), consists of ekphrastic poetry based on the Qingming Shanghe Tu scroll, an artwork from approximately 1127 AD that depicts the city of Bianliang (modern-day Kaifeng in northeast China).
Compliments are due Fredericton-based Goose Lane, which it seems has spared no expense in publishing it, including full-colour reproductions of the scroll.
French flaps notwithstanding, Swimming Ginger is specifically written from the point of the view of people depicted on the scroll.
As such, it follows the same modus operandi as Geddes' The Terracotta Army. That book - originally published in 1984 and reissued this fall by Goose Lane - was written from the point of view of a handful of the more than 8,000 individually sculpted life-sized statues interred with the first emperor of China.
Swimming Ginger takes the conceit one step further than its predecessor, however, in that Geddes gives the scroll's creator house room.
He then permits himself a long poem in his own voice on perils of life and art-making that impishly slips in and out of the vernacular of the other poems:
"This is neither ballad nor hymn, / my friend. 'Song' among the classics / refers to dancing, so get up // off your butt and shake those buns."
His new collection of poetry, Swimming Ginger (Goose Lane, 96 pages, $20), consists of ekphrastic poetry based on the Qingming Shanghe Tu scroll, an artwork from approximately 1127 AD that depicts the city of Bianliang (modern-day Kaifeng in northeast China).
Compliments are due Fredericton-based Goose Lane, which it seems has spared no expense in publishing it, including full-colour reproductions of the scroll.
French flaps notwithstanding, Swimming Ginger is specifically written from the point of the view of people depicted on the scroll.
As such, it follows the same modus operandi as Geddes' The Terracotta Army. That book - originally published in 1984 and reissued this fall by Goose Lane - was written from the point of view of a handful of the more than 8,000 individually sculpted life-sized statues interred with the first emperor of China.
Swimming Ginger takes the conceit one step further than its predecessor, however, in that Geddes gives the scroll's creator house room.
He then permits himself a long poem in his own voice on perils of life and art-making that impishly slips in and out of the vernacular of the other poems:
"This is neither ballad nor hymn, / my friend. 'Song' among the classics / refers to dancing, so get up // off your butt and shake those buns."
Displaying 1 of 1 review