Public Artwork

Concrete poetry

Simon Frank, Concrete poetry, 2002. © Liam Dynes
Simon Frank, CONCRETE POETRY, 2002
Locations:
City Hall, 200 King Street West , Kitchener, ON, N2G 4G7, Canada
Locke Street, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Artwork creator(s): 
Frank, Simon
Text author(s): 
Frank, Simon
Installation year: 
2002
Remarks on location: 

Located at the entrance

Description: 

The poem is painted on the pavement, spread along downtown streets. Each line is headed by a blue arrows pointing to the next line.

Text of the artwork: 

Begin here

here

here

here

each step

a green light

a deep breath

a thousand mile journey

the first step

connected to the next

connected to the

backbone

by a line

of thought

 

merge with the dust

follow your shadow

(a chance taken)

the world is not

a machine

the mind moves

at three miles an hour

as slow as a turtle

 

streetsign daffodil

heliotrope lightpost

anonymous flower

caught in a crack

in the concrete

 

peripatetic poet

 

my feet

glued to the sidewalk

and then unglued

my head

never separate

from my body

wandering

the way

the wind blows

wondering

who imagined this landscape

do I remember

when this place

was as blank

as a sheet

of paper

where do I come from

where am I now

where am I going

 

a map

of my own thoughts

 

where a seed falls

from a sparrow’s ass

a tree will grow

a river will grow

a city will grow

right here

right here

 

to walk the streets

of this city

is to love it

 

I read

speak

think

with my feet

Text theme: 
Existentialism, human experience
Artwork theme: 
Dichotomy of nature and culture, redefining culture (human activity) in a natural environment
History: 

1. Exhibition: Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA), Kitchener, ON, September 21-29, 2002

2. Niagara Artists Company, St. Catharines, ON, Summer 2003

3. Exhibition: SPASM II: The Couture of Contemporaneity, Saskatoon, SK, organized by AKA Gallery, Paved New Media and Art, May 28-June 6, 2004

4. Exhibition: Future Cities, Art Gallery of Hamilton off-site project, Hamilton, ON, April 2004 

5. Exhibition Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, ON, 2005

6. Exhibition: Wordsmiths, Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge, ON, July 7-August 19, 2006

Note(s): 

Artist Simon Frank's proposal, Concrete Poetry, was awarded the $40,000 public art commission for the South Locke Street project, in the city of Hamilton.

Document(s): 

CAFKA 02. Power To The People. Simon Frank. (Hamilton, ON)

CAFKA (2008).  CAFKA 02. Power To The People. Simon Frank. (Hamilton, ON). <http://cafka.org/> : CAFKA Contemporary Art Forum

Art Gallery of Hamilton Special "Future Cities"

Ciupka, Larissa (2004).  Art Gallery of Hamilton Special "Future Cities" . Hamilton : Art Gallery of Hamilton, p. 64

Future Cities

Hastings, Sacha (2004).  Future Cities. Canadian Art. vol. 21, no. 4, p. 89