The Langham Cultural Centre in Kaslo is now featuring Ron L. Zheng’s Leaving My Found Eden: A Poetography Exhibit. The show, which has been traveling throughout British Columbia, started in 2007 in Vancouver and has stopped in Port Moody, Parksville, Salmon Arm, Prince Rupert, and Sechelt.
Poetography is an art form that combines poetry and photography, creating a dynamic tension that infuses new meanings into the words and images. It merges traditional Japanese and Chinese cultures with modern Western culture.
The photographs are all starkly monochromatic, shot on black and white film and digitally transferred onto canvas. The images depict modern settings, but in their character they are reminiscent of the precision, spontaneity and delicacy of ancient Chinese black ink paintings.
The poems are English-language tanka. Like traditional Japanese tanka, each poem consists of five lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. The form of these poetography poems is traditional, but the narratives depict moments from contemporary life.
The show runs until June 5.