First, what is ekphrasis?

Simply put, ekphrasis is “the vivid and poetic response to and [or] description of a work of art.”

If you’ll allow me to quote Wikipedia at length just this one time, I promise I won’t do it again…

“Ekphrasis has been considered generally to be a rhetorical device in which one medium of art tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form, and in doing so, relate more directly to the audience, through its illuminative liveliness. A descriptive work of prose or poetry, a film, or even a photograph may thus highlight through its rhetorical vividness what is happening, or what is shown in, say, any of the visual arts, and in doing so, may enhance the original art and so take on a life of its own through its brilliant description. One example is a painting of a sculpture: the painting is “telling the story of” the sculpture, and so becoming a storyteller, as well as a story (work of art) itself.”

I propose an ekphrasis workshop in which we compose artistic responses to a piece of art while we sit inside that art. As we sit inside Serra’s piece, literally filling in space, we can figuratively fill in untold pieces of the narrative. Ekphrasis often functions as a sort of midrash, telling the stories that get left out of the original: what came before the feeling/scene depicted in the piece, what came after, what came beside?

Poetry is private thoughts made public, inner words turned out. Inside Serra’s art we will compose; outside Serra’s art we will perform.

My expertise is in poetry, but artists working in other media are welcome to join in.

Date: November 9, from 12-4 (1 meeting)
Location: “Band” at LACMA
Teacher: Erika Szostak
Limit: 15 people
Fee: $10