Digressions

Philippa is currently collaborating with the poet Ian Duhig on a project entitled DIgressions based around Shandy Hall and the legacy of Laurence Sterne. The book resulting from this will be published by Smokestack later this year while exhibitions in London and Yorkshire with readings will commence in the Autumn of 2014.

“(from ‘The White Page’ by Ian Duhig)”]If you stretch out this writing
into one long, thin single line,
draw it to an invisible thread,
you can make its information
your own material, giving you
the whip-hand over this verse,
this universe, then with a flick
of your wrist, it will ripple into
a silhouette of your own fancy.

ce Sterne, the celebrated author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767, Tristram Shandy remains one of the greatest and most influential of all comic novels in the English language.

In celebration of Sterne’s legacy, the award-winning poet Ian Duhig and artist-printmaker Philippa Troutman produced the site-specific collaborative artwork, Digressions, based around Shandy Hall, Coxwold, where Laurence Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy.

Digressions takes in the topography, history and traditions associated with Shandy Hall, in wandering but site-specific engagements with its mazes, meteors and medieval shapeshifter ghost stories against a background of shifting religion, politics, science and art – from the world’s first marbling techniques of Suminagashi, through dada to contemporary art practitioners. Duhig’s poems draw on ballad traditions as well as the modern conceptual writing, for which Shandy Hall is a recognised international centre.

• 1 Sep – 4 Oct 2014 – An exhibition of Troutman’s paintings, prints and cut-ups is on show, alongside Duhig’s poems, at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX,
• 11 Oct – 1 Nov 2014 – The exhibition transfers to Shandy Hall, Coxwold, York YO61 4AD,
• 18 September 2014 – The book of artwork, poetry and prose, also called Digressions and published by Smokestack to coincide with the exhibition, will also be on sale. A launch event, with a reading by Ian Duhig, will be held at the Poetry Cafe, London,  from 6.30pm

The book can be pre-ordered or purchased from Amazon here.