The Nuns
This is a project I created during my master’s studies. The outcome is a zine. The aim of this project is to engage in dialogue with a poet whose work has been selected for the Cambridge Poetry Festival, and to create a visual work based on her poem. And I was assigned to create a piece of work based on the poem The Nuns by poet Nadia Lines. Through countless readings of this poem, I kept trying to understand the voice the poet wished to convey. I felt that the poet wanted to bring the nuns back to life within her poem, and this idea was truly touching. After all, nuns are ordinary people too. Sometimes, they should be allowed to simply be themselves. Nadia explained that when she was writing this poem, she imagined herself as a nun who had been buried for a thousand years and suddenly came back to life one morning. She wondered what would she do? Perhaps run blindingly fast for a moment, stare at the river silently, smile broadly, at a dog. She believed that nuns do not have to be perfect or eternally devoted to God. They should be allowed to be themselves and to enjoy the world.
Nadia Lines
The Nuns
are buried on their feet.
Their faces are sinking slowly into the soil,
like a lover descending an escalator at an airport.
God’s love is a quicksand pulling and pulling -
the nuns are narrow hungry hollows, whirlpools of earth.
But they have a hope absent from the horizonal body,
They’re ready to do as we do again -
run blindingly fast for a moment;
stare at the river silently;
smile broadly, at a dog.
Medium: MonoPrint
Materials: Acrylic Sheet, Water-based Ink, Ink Roller, branches
Zine Design Idea
Since the poem’s beginning is negative and the end is positive, I used black and white for the first and the colour for the second part.
