Image | Mirage
University of Oxford
Oxford, England
September 2017
"Image | Mirage" was a "writing on water" installation created in conjunction with the 2017 Oxford University
conference "Power of the Word," at which a variation of the essay below was presented:
“'An Aquatic Reverie' | Stéphane Mallarmé’s Writing on Water and the Naming of Waves"
Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures (Jan. 2020). Vol. 3, No. 2: 55-63.
conference "Power of the Word," at which a variation of the essay below was presented:
“'An Aquatic Reverie' | Stéphane Mallarmé’s Writing on Water and the Naming of Waves"
Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures (Jan. 2020). Vol. 3, No. 2: 55-63.
Pages from the Magazine Placed on the Benches Surrounding the Oxford Pond
"The pure work implies the disappearance of the poet as speaker, yielding his initiative to words, which are mobilized by
the shock of their difference; they light up with reciprocal reflections like a virtual stream of fireworks over jewels,
restoring perceptible breath to the former lyric impulse, or the enthusiastic personal directing of the sentence."
— from Stéphane Mallarmé's "Crisis in Poetry"
the shock of their difference; they light up with reciprocal reflections like a virtual stream of fireworks over jewels,
restoring perceptible breath to the former lyric impulse, or the enthusiastic personal directing of the sentence."
— from Stéphane Mallarmé's "Crisis in Poetry"
Writing on Water Installation (and De-Installation)
“I’m extracting this sonnet from a prolonged study on The Word: it is inverted, by which I mean that
its meaning is evoked by an internal mirage created by the words themselves.”
—Stéphane Mallarmé, in a letter to a friend (1886)
The theme of the 2017 Oxford University conference was “The Power of the Word | The Prophetic Word.” And for this “writing on water” installation something of a word’s prophetic power was to be manifested alongside the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé and his own “aquatic reveries” sailing on Seine.
On a pond surrounded by Oxford’s Lazenbee’s Ground Walk, two words, MIRAGE and IMAGE, were inverted, positioned to mirror one another out on the water. Each word floated on the pond’s reflecting surface, as a kind of mirage inside of an image, an image inside of a mirage, appearing and disappearing in the vanishing act of language, the spelling out of their own evanescence.
These two large words remained on the water for several days, while visitors to the park walked alongside them, reading in motion, seeing in time, moving like a mirage in the light of their own momentary presence. While others, alone or in pairs, sat on benches next to the pond, looking out onto the surface, perhaps reflecting (and reflected) upon the two words floating before them.
Now, years later, what remains of the Oxford installation are the fluid memories of those moments, and the many mirage-like photographs of the project—images of a time now past, a site faraway—a “magnificent supplement” of sorts, as Mallarmé spoke of language itself. And in the photographs, light and language shine still upon the page, as if upon an absence, what Mallarmé described of the language of poetry as an “exquisite vacancy,” like “Words, [that] all by themselves, light each other up...the center of vibratory suspense.”
its meaning is evoked by an internal mirage created by the words themselves.”
—Stéphane Mallarmé, in a letter to a friend (1886)
The theme of the 2017 Oxford University conference was “The Power of the Word | The Prophetic Word.” And for this “writing on water” installation something of a word’s prophetic power was to be manifested alongside the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé and his own “aquatic reveries” sailing on Seine.
On a pond surrounded by Oxford’s Lazenbee’s Ground Walk, two words, MIRAGE and IMAGE, were inverted, positioned to mirror one another out on the water. Each word floated on the pond’s reflecting surface, as a kind of mirage inside of an image, an image inside of a mirage, appearing and disappearing in the vanishing act of language, the spelling out of their own evanescence.
These two large words remained on the water for several days, while visitors to the park walked alongside them, reading in motion, seeing in time, moving like a mirage in the light of their own momentary presence. While others, alone or in pairs, sat on benches next to the pond, looking out onto the surface, perhaps reflecting (and reflected) upon the two words floating before them.
Now, years later, what remains of the Oxford installation are the fluid memories of those moments, and the many mirage-like photographs of the project—images of a time now past, a site faraway—a “magnificent supplement” of sorts, as Mallarmé spoke of language itself. And in the photographs, light and language shine still upon the page, as if upon an absence, what Mallarmé described of the language of poetry as an “exquisite vacancy,” like “Words, [that] all by themselves, light each other up...the center of vibratory suspense.”
BBC Radio Oxford Interview, on the Oxford Installation "Image | Mirage," on "The Cat Orman Show," September 15, 2017
Many thanks to Carolyn Brass & Jefree Shalev for their invaluable assistance with this installation,
and to Nick Baldwin of the Oxford University Parks Department.
and to Nick Baldwin of the Oxford University Parks Department.
Copyright © 2020 Clark Lunberry. All rights reserved.