Madeline Madrigal

 

Inspiration comes to us out of the dark of non-being, as a reward for loving attention.
–Iris Murdoch

 

The putting together of seemingly irreconcilable parts is what animates most art. Perhaps this is why poet-painter collaborations have endured as a form: words and images take turns; at times they resist the pull (or push) of the other’s influence; visual and linguistic material can coalesce into a new singularity. EG Asher and Matt Jones are keen to the history of the milieu out of which they work and Madeline Madrigal is a genuflection to the tradition. The specter of Dada appears in this collaboration as poet and painter put together two disparate works (poem, ink drawings) allowing chance to becomes the primary meaning-making apparatus. Asher's handling of language is tactile: she makes poetry sculptural. Jones drawings of his studio are, by contrast, ephemeral. The “she” of the poem is echoed in the image of a young girl’s face that appears multiple times throughout the series of drawings. Words and phrases careen through the air, they crystalize into incantations. Jones drawings act as a kind of backdrop (a site of possibility) to the richness of Asher’s imagery. Here, the word/picture dyad is fluid: drawings regulate the syntax of the poem and the poem invests the drawings with imagery.
 

—Eric Sutphin (May 2016)