54. RUTH ASAWA - A SPACE BETWEEN THE INDELABLE AND EPHERMERAL.
When Forms Come Alive - Hayward Gallery - LONDON.
Ruth Asawa, Untitled, (S.065, Hanging Seven-Lobed, Multi-Layered Continuous Form within a Form with Spheres in the Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixrg Lobes), c. 1960-63. Oxidised copper wire. Private Collection. Image: M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2024.
shadows drip -
awaiting surrender to pool
- a presence suspended
cages as cases of a fruit long decayed
to leave an outline - a combe - a line
as a scribbling of biro
- to blur into umbra - to form a state between the dissolving
as these drops nestle their Siamese
as a feather grows within a womb -
a scientists diagram
to rest within the dormancy of an atmosphere
rusted to inspire a russet dust
to halo these swollen orbs
elongated - by far away bulbs - to pulse a lunar tide
extruded - by fingers out of reach
undulating a waist - tender and gravid
Ruth Asawa, Untitled, (S.142, Hanging Five-Lobed, Multi-Layered Continuous Form within a Form), 1990. Oxidised copper wire. Private Collection. Image: M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2024.
a pregnancy of volume
a bubble birthed within these rings
to further drip down to be caught up within -
- within these wire jars, these baskets of the collected
- as eggs that will remain unhatched
embryonic and empty
discarded shadow skins - hang suspended
dripping to pools of puddled penumbrae across an illuminated floor
- pulled up across the walls - an extrusion from within a memory
an evidence of an ephemeral rhythm to remain indelible.
Ruth Asawa, Untitled, (S.142, Hanging Five-Lobed, Multi-Layered Continuous Form within a Form), 1990. Oxidised copper wire. Private Collection. Image: M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2024.
When Forms Come Alive - Hayward Gallery - Until 7 May, 2024.