Image from Rebekka Erin Moran’s quiz response
For this recurring feature, At Length asks artists and writers to answer a quiz composed of questions from ten contemporary poems. Responses can be original or found material. (Sources for the questions and how to find the poems they are taken from are included, below.) Here are the artists included in this round:
—Kristan Kennedy
—Rebekka Moran
—Adam Forrester
—Kreh Mellick
—Jason Polan
KRISTAN KENNEDY
Where are you planted?
On Ramsey’s farm, with the concrete turtle, at 1742, at the Menaker’s, at Twin Rocks, in the Hall of Minerals, under the Verrazano, in the house across from the hands, at the old high school, on Yamhill, in the Serra at the Pulitzer.
Who has a mask, & a heart?
What is more distracting than clouds?
The future.
I keep an empty blue vase./I should fill it. With what, white mice and charcoal?
Smash it instead.
Do you ever hate being American, flying Virgin, loving the master?
Yes, from January 20, 1981 to January 20, 1989.
Who would you change for?
If scissors aren’t the answer, what’s a doll to do?
This works:
and so does this:
Which system is most miraculous?
The one we can’t help but participate in.
Do you go in or stay out of the house of words?
I go in.
What do we sing to a man who’s drowning?
We would sing this
REBEKKA ERIN MORAN
Where are you planted?
Who has a mask, & a heart?
What is more distracting than clouds?
AND
I keep an empty blue vase./I should fill it. With what, white mice and charcoal?
AND
Do you ever hate being American, flying Virgin, loving the master?
Who would you change for?
If scissors aren’t the answer, what’s a doll to do?
OR
Which system is most miraculous?
OR
Do you go in or stay out of the house of words?
What do we sing to a man who’s drowning?
Where are you planted?
Who has a mask, & a heart?
What is more distracting than clouds?
Do you ever hate being American, flying Virgin, loving the master?
Who would you change for?
If scissors aren’t the answer, what’s a doll to do?
Which system is most miraculous?
Do you go in or stay out of the house of words?
What do we sing to a man who’s drowning?
KREH MELLICK
Where are you planted? + Who has a mask & a heart?
Who would you change for?
Which system is most miraculous?
Do you go in or stay out of the house of words?
What do we sing to a man who’s drowning?
—
Kristan Kennedy is an artist, curator and educator. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon where she is the Visual Art Curator at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and is represented by Fourteen30 Contemporary Art. Recent exhibitions include OO, curated by Rob Halverson for Misako & Rosen (Tokyo); Kristan Kennedy & Gunta Stolzl, Zzzzzzz (New York); and Sleeper, Fourteen30 Contemporary (Portland). A solo exhibition of Kennedy’s work will be on view this spring at Soloway in Brooklyn, New York.
Rebekka Moran graduated from the School of the Art Institute in 2000 before moving to Holland and subsequently Reykjavik in 2005. She has exhibited in cities such as NYC, Chicago, Rotterdam, Köln, Tokyo, Paris, and Reykjavik.
Adam Forrester is a photographer and filmmaker who has lived in Los Angeles, Mexico City, coastal Maine, and most recently, the sleepy oasis of Athens, Georgia, where he completed his MFA in Photography at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Adam makes work about bizarre myths, abiding folktales, and mumbled truths. From time to time, he reminisces about the moment when jelly shoes and Reebok pumps were popular. He is currently, most likely, somewhere between Atlanta and New Orleans.
Kreh Mellick lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina. She was named one of the “new superstars of Southern art” by Oxford American. She is a former core fellow at Penland School of Crafts.
Jason Polan lives in New York City. His illustrations have appeared in numerous publications The New Yorker and The New York Times, and he is currently drawing Every Person in New York City. He is the founder of Taco Bell Drawing Club.
—
Question Sources
Where are you planted? is the title of a poem in Evie Shockley’s the new black
Who has a mask & a heart is from Alice Notley’s poem “White Phosphorus” in Grave of Light
What is more distracting than clouds? is the title of a poem in Matthew Rohrer’s Destroyer and Preserver
I keep an empty blue vase./I should fill it. With what, white mice and a charcoal? is from Jay Hopler’s poem “Meditation on a Blue Vase” in Green Squall
Do you ever hate being American, flying Virgin, loving the master? is from Julia Bloch’s poem “Dear Kelly, All these weddings” in Letters to Kelly Clarkson
Who would you change for? is from Joanna Klink’s poem “Sorting” in Raptus
If scissors aren’t the answer, what’s a doll to do? is the title of poem in Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life
Which system is the most miraculous? is title of a poem in Catherine Barnett’s The Game of Boxes
Do you go in or stay out of the house of words? is from Jee Leong Koh’s poem “A Lover’s Recourse”
What do we sing to a man who’s drowning? is from Terri Witek’s poem”Anchor Sea Shanty” in Exit Island
