Call for Ekphrastic Submissions: The 2020 Switcheroo! (Deadline: 4/10/2020)
BROADSIDED PRESS ANNUAL SWITCHEROO
WANTED: Ekphrastic Responses to artist Janice Redman’s “Ouroboros.”
DEADLINE: April 10, 2020
Broadsided Press is seeking submissions of poetry and short prose that respond to “Ouroboros ” a sculpture piece by Broadsided artist Janice Redman.
The winning entry will be published on May 1, 2020 as a Broadsided collaboration to enliven the doors, utility poles, bus stops, and walls of the world.
Submit writing in response to the image below—details follow.
This the 17th Broadsided Press “Switcheroo.” What is The Switcheroo? Every spring, we like to turn the tables and invite writers to respond to art we post, rather than asking artists to respond to writing we’ve chosen.
All Broadsided artists were invited to submit up to three pieces of work for the Switcheroo. We then asked Jennifer Moses, the 2019 Switcheroo artist, to review the submissions and choose one she thought would be generative for writers and would work in Broadsided’s unique format. Of her decision, Moses had this to say:
I still remember the thrill of first seeing Magritte’s Word-Pictures Cycle. First his most famous piece, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” and then others. What delight I felt seeing words that do not match an image and yet somehow were perfectly linked, questioning what is true.
Magritte himself wrote: “The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture ‘This is a pipe,’ I’d have been lying!”
Much of my own work is inspired by literature. I use words to make an image. As a teacher I find myself approximating words to articulate what I am seeing in my students’ paintings and asking them to do the same. It’s my favorite part of teaching, a game to play, putting word to image and image to word without a definitive end.
I chose “Ouroboros” because my first reaction was that it seemed like an object that spoke or at least was accompanied by sound. A repeated gasp for air? A cry? Circular breathing? I think that this sculpture will illicit many words, direct words, indirect words, words of our time or an ancient anthem, words that make a poem.
–Jennifer Moses
Artist Janice Redman is a sculptor and mother who lives in Truro. Born in England, she received her MFA from The University of Ulster, was twice a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and has been the recipient of many awards including the Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Purchase Prize, a Massachusetts Cultural Council award in sculpture, and residencies at Yaddo and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. Her work is in the permanent collections of The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. She is represented by Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA. www.janiceredman.com
GUIDANCE:
Poems should be UNDER 20 lines. Prose should be UNDER 300 words. Entries should be sent via Submittable. Further guidelines can be found there.
Curious to know what we’re looking for? See past Switcheroo examples. We’ve favored responses that are not literal interpretations but instead amplify some emotional aspect of the visual art. As both image and text will appear together in the final publication, we seek writing in conversation with the art such that a new piece is created by the two together.
A pdf of this announcement can be downloaded here: Switcheroo2020-BroadsidedPress.pdf
PS: We are are also open for non-Switcheroo submissions. See our guidelines. If selected, a Broadsided artist will respond to your work. See what you inspire!