Sarah Lloyd: Poetics of Space

Sarah Lloyd

Poetics of Space

Poetics of Space is an exploration through paint of the internal and external architecture of one day and attempts to capture the phemenological aspects of lived experience. The title references the seminal text by Bachelard, first published in 1958, where humanness is defined through the domestic space of the home. The work draws upon both Uylsses (James Joyce) and Under Milk Wood (Dylan Thomas) where one day of 24 hours contains the emotions and experiences of community.

 I have been familiar with ‘Under Milk Wood’ by Dylan Thomas (1954), since being a child, when my aunt and mother performed at the Cleethorpes memorial hall for the Cleethorpes Amateur Dramatic Society (CADS). I have a memory of my mother rehearsing her lines with her book propped up against the kitchen taps and the windowsill, with a view toward the garden.

The lilting prose of this ‘play for voices’ has deep resonance. The exploration of one imaginary day within one imaginary town, Llareggub (read backward, it spells “bugger all”), reminds me of my childhood home and the people within.

My grandfather was born on the Shropshire Borders and had a wallpaper and paint shop. He was my guiding light. We were in the main (not my mother) strict chapel people and alcohol lived next door or behind the flour in the food cupboard.

Having spent my 50th birthday in a rehab I attempt to live a 24-hr recovery day at a time. This wonderful prose describes all the crazy complexity of such a time span and is full of life and vigour.

I hope these paintings, which have been given names from the words within the text, have similar energy as you take a view on the world both within and around.