hosts: Reid Hepworth & Shalini Pattabiraman
poet of the month: Lorraine A Padden
24th August 2023
A Thursday Feature
We bring you week 4 with Lorraine A Padden
On Display
The new Renaissance exhibition at the Met just opened this afternoon and it’s packed.
portrait gallery
Titian’s Reclining Venus is the centerpiece of the show, and a guy wearing a long leather coat just pushed to the front of the crowd. He’s standing with his back to the painting, waving his phone around for a selfie that captures the goddess’s naked torso behind his shoulder.
all the prizes
The security guard tells him to move farther away from the painting. Before stepping aside the guy sneers at her and the rest of us who can’t see the work because he’s blocking it.
of ownership
Source:
Drifting Sands Haibun Issue #11 September 2021
THG:
This haibun made me smile and frown in equal measure. It’s so relatable! I’m sure that many, if not most of us have had similar experiences with people being self-involved, entitled and downright creepy! The ku also hit me… the haves versus the have-nots. Those that can afford to purchase art or go to a gallery/exhibition and those that cannot. It can be a bitter pill to swallow.
Can you tell us how you wove that layer into your haibun? Or anything else you want to say about this piece?
Lorraine: I wanted to explore notions of control and ownership - of cultural artifacts, human bodies, visual representation – and not only how gender is a fulcrum in this investigation, but also how technology allows greater numbers of people to get in on the ownership deal, and perhaps redefine it. I really appreciate your bringing up the have-nots, as the only character perpetually kept out of owning anything in this haibun scenario is of course the Reclining Venus herself. She’s permanently objectified in paint on canvas but everyone around her gets to take a piece of her, if you will, not only by seeing her body as a spectator in the gallery, but also by capturing it with a phone. The stereotypical power plays by that entitled man present a possible both/and reading of this piece, in that his boorish aggressions coexist within the context of beneficent generations of mostly men who first enabled world class museums to offer art to the general public in the US over a century ago. While unfortunately no longer the case, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was technically free for decades, the price of admission only a suggestion at the front door.
Prompt: Lorraine has given a fantastic example of a woven haibun. For this week's prompt, we’d like to see you try writing a woven or braided haibun. Any subject matter, the sky's the limit!
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2. Share your best-polished pieces.
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Let it simmer for a while.
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We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.