Abstract
Call: ‘Come closer and let me tell you my story. It began when I was built in fragments, brush heavy with paint. And, if you look carefully you may see a line where an ocean meets a sky and that sunset clouds are stirring in both places. And, the Titanium White? Well, that’s my journey: from the top down or the bottom up, I am, and I am always moving. My voice may seem quiet behind the glass, but back here I am roaring.’
Abstract, 1990s, Peter Hay, REDMG: 2020.89.1, gift of a friend of the artist
Response: ‘I am close and listening to your story. I can hear you roar, the churn of water and of air. And, now I’m here I wish for thunder, for the drag of tidewater beneath my feet. If I could, I would touch the white and trace your starting points and destinations, measure the distances you have travelled. And, I may leave and walk away but, in my moving, you will remain, remind me that I too am made of fragments.
Claire Dyer
‘As soon as I saw the image I felt it contained both movement and story. I didn’t know then it was by Peter Hay of whose art I have long been an admirer. My aim with my ‘call and response’ piece was to try and capture the relationship between an artwork and the person looking at it.'
Claire Dyer is a Reading based author and poet who likes love stories and cheese
