Visited Iris Colomb’s exhibition at the National Poetry Library today. Her approach to poetry as multimedia experience feels completely fresh.
The ‘Try destruction!’ installation caught my attention immediately. A carefully constructed pyramid of crumpled paper balls where Colomb had systematically fragmented existing texts, transforming written words into sculptural form. The methodical destruction becomes an act of creation. Each crumpled sphere represents poetry liberated from traditional page constraints.
Another piece, ‘Try improvisation!’, invited visitors to listen through headphones while examining her experimental book objects. Her recorded voice explained collaborative text-making processes, duration-based experiments, improvised soundscapes. The audio component adds temporal dimension to static visual works.
The ‘Try Bookworks!’ section displayed objects from the National Poetry Library’s special collection. Each work challenged conventional codex form in different ways. Seeing how other artists have reimagined what books can be, what reading can become.
What struck me most was Colomb’s systematic approach to boundary-breaking. She doesn’t abandon poetic tradition carelessly. Instead, she deconstructs it methodically, testing what survives when familiar structures dissolve. The exhibition demonstrates poetry’s plasticity as art form.
Her work connects visual art, performance, and literature without losing poetic essence. Language becomes material you can mould, layer, reshape across different sensory experiences.
Worth seeing if you’re curious how creative forms evolve when artists refuse to accept inherited limitations.
Posted from London, where poetry keeps finding new shapes.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
