Roxandra Dardagan Britz and Dan Wylie’s witty and beautiful collaboration of poetry and printmaking smoulders with the artists’ passion, writes Robyn Sassen.
SLOW FIRES with etchings by Roxandra Dardagan Britz and poems by Dan Wylie (Fourthwall Books)
Frogs and wild dogs and elephants, an ostrich with its head in the sand, a secretary bird with diverse opinions, a hornless rhino and herds and herds of cattle bound in one direction amid torrents of texture.
These are just some of the main characters in Slow Fires, a deliciously unfashionable offering of poetry and printmaking.
Is it fair to force animals into synthetic personae and political rubrics? Can human-made associations obnoxiously bruise their authenticity? Or whittle their realities down into mere ciphers of the rumbling beast that is our society?
Artist Roxandra Dardagan Britz and poet Dan Wylie engage with this question in their wise, sophisticated, witty and beautiful collaboration, yielding 24 distinct pieces.
No questions are addressed directly, as no animals are named throughout this jewel of a book. Rather, from the shambling shadows of a hyena to the cattle that perish like humans, or the elephant that gloriously watches us over aeons, not to forget the dung beetle that speaks of an inordinate fondness of others of its ken, this publication reeks of succinct and thoughtful description, whether it be in intaglio or with words. And it is so beautifully crafted it will make you ache.
The give-and-take between poet and artist is never forced or literal, making the dovetailing of the words with the image particularly pleasurable and unpredictable.
Ten, 20 years ago, a generation back, this book would have been leatherbound, its images celebrated behind spidery-thin paper and printed on special bond. But today, with solid, satisfying design and, albeit between paper covers, this book is no less exciting and precious.
For full review by Robyn Sassen see Mail & Guardian
