Cross-Genre Conversations, Roden & Borges

In this project students were introduced to the work of artist Steve Roden and writer Jorge Luis Borges and asked to look for ways the artifacts they made (short stories and art work, respectively) suggested similarities in theme or practice. The visual art students were then asked to create work that responded to Borges or was Borges-like in some way, and the writing students were to create work that responded to Roden or was Roden-like. Here are a few examples:

Ian Heisler:

Aaron Kang:

 Adrianna Coe:

Abby Zilka:

Chris Rasmussen:

                                                     

Lex Aquilina:

Kaitlin Lanning:

Natalie Crane:

Jessamy Delling:

Holly Collier:

Johanna Hickel:

Kristen Hatakeda:

Kelly McBride:

Nathaniel Colbert:

Marisa Lainson:

Yggdrasil

An ancient with a sword of flame guards the heartwood

at the center, where the oldest trees commune

and whisper tales of snakes and thieves.

A weeping man walks the branches alone

and calls for his lost children. At the fringes

of the forest, foxes prowl like Philistines;

they snarl, rage and plot, but every one is caught.

None may feast on the fruit of the garden.

Fog clings to trunks and undergrowth,

like slow-exhaling ghosts come to rest

in this wilderness, this giant’s nest, this grove

of woods between worlds. Leaves soak sugar

from the stars beyond; the roots drink deep

the syrup of the soil, they extend through

the cosmos and void: planets hang from their ends

like drops of dew. Here, you and I look up

and hear a grief-drunk call. Before the fall,

we walked the branches, too. 

Kristin Rasmussen:

Ian Koh:

Response to: Sunrise, Sun, by Steve Roden

I Stayed for the Gentle Sun

The soft light streams by; un-seeable glory

bare to see. For momentary beauty,

my fragile eyes are shown patches

of the flying light parade,

before the glorious one stops

to give his unbearable stare.

Being only human, I warp his form.

Although I would call him a smoothie,

and hail him with a fan,

the gentle sun smiles

with his winsome face,

and lets me know there is kindness 

in his unrelenting pace.

His fierceness is a sprinkle

to the poor in sight who know him by his crumbs.

Amy Geiken: