A joint creative venture between a woodcut artist and a poet resulted in a synergy greater than the sum of its parts. The artist David Borg and poet Michelle ‘Mikhaila’ Muscat speak to Lara Zammit about their collaboration.
“What sparked the collaboration in this artistic venture was mutual interest in The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa-oki Nami Ura), a famous woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai,” began David Borg, speaking about his collaboration with the poet Michelle ‘Mikhaila’ Muscat which led to her poem La Polena al Tramonto in response to his woodcut.
“The Great Wave belongs to the ukiyo-e artistic genre which literally means ‘pictures of the floating world’. This later gave rise to the idea to accompany a woodcut of the golden Maltese sunset with thematically paired poetic verse.”
While The Great Wave is set off the coast of the Bōsō Peninsula in Japan, Borg’s woodcut and Muscat’s poem showcase the Mediterranean Sea which can be admired at sunset from Wied iż-Żurrieq, “adding the enigmatic blend of a long-lost sunken ship with its alluring figurehead”, said Borg.
“A figurehead (called la polena in Italian) can be found on the bow of a ship, a carved figure, often with meticulously sculpted anatomy. This further blended the two themes of poetic verse and the subtleties depicted in the woodcut.”
Borg went on to note that the artistic intertwining of poem and woodcut is no alien concept.
“Poetry and woodcuts are often seen to combine artistic expression in both ancient and modern art, with both the real and the surreal. The poem and woodcut were intended to blend together various themes both verbally and visually.”
Speaking about the themes and allusions expressed in the poem, Muscat said that the gleaming lingering sunsets visible in the woodcut, “burning our sandy shores in summer, witnessed daily on the Maltese archipelago, are both gorgeous, relaxing and inspiring.
“Endless glimmers and effervescent skies, colluding tinges of gold and sunburst scarlet on the backdrop of a dimming sun and infinite ocean, were the perfect summer theme. The warm colours of sunset and the special moments it often represents can be both soothing as well as invigorating and transformational.”
Muscat noted that galleon figureheads, which she alludes to in her poem, inspire vivid tales, folklore and quests for underwater treasures.
“An old sunken ship with a historical figurehead standing still in time in spite of all adversity, once serving for luck and guidance to seafarers, has now transformed its function to guide marine life instead. Although repurposed, the submerged spirit of the ship, still stands strong in spite of the passing ages, a symbol of resilience and adaptation.”
Commenting on a stanza in her poem reading “La luce dà vita al oscurità/ Così è stato e così sempre sarà”, Muscat noted that one of the few constants in everyone’s lives is the recurrent cycle of night and day, irrespective of where one is in the world, and of whether or not there is an ongoing pandemic.
“On a metaphorical level, the cycle of light and darkness also implies the pervasiveness of both the positive and the negative in the world, the existence of both good and evil.
“The philosophical concept of Yin and Yang represents duality, bringing together the contradictory yet inseparable as complementary, interdependent forces in the universe. The poem and woodcut mirror the undulating Maltese waves at sunset with hidden imagery of a historical figurehead as well as these symbolic undertones and allusions.”
The artist-turned-philosopher Arthur C. Danto once claimed: “Of the graphic media, woodcut is perhaps the most direct and expressive and requires the simplest apparatus. Any piece of plank will serve, and the life of the wood – its grains and knots and splinters – can be transferred to the print itself.”
Borg maintained that woodcut and relief printing in general is a very diverse medium and offers many possibilities for experimentation.
“The material used for this woodcut is plywood with a maple veneer. Plywood is generally a much more homogeneous material than wood blocks and is less susceptible to adverse effects such as warping. Designs need to be adapted and tweaked to the wood surface, as while carving, imperfections might be encountered.
“This in turn will give to the artwork a lot back, as it is not a linear process, but rather one of iteration. The artist creates the design and then continues to refine it during the process of transferring to the plate and carving.
“Important aesthetic decisions are taken in every stage up to the time when the original artwork is created during printing. In this case, printing is done by hand and not using any mechanical tools such as a press. Printing by hand gives infinite possibilities that vary with the paper used, ink consistency and hand pressure during printing.
“All the above affect directly the character of the artwork. One of the greatest advantages of the medium is the possibility for multiplicity, which is not the same as the endless identical multiplicity offered by digital printing. It is a multiplicity of very subtle variations in colour and tone, which creates an expectation in the artist to eagerly uncover the results, which are generally expected but which can sometimes offer exciting surprises.”
La Polena al Tramonto
Il sipario cala sul giorno
Si imbocca la strada del ritorno
Si mischia il sole con i riflessi del mare
Si mescola con i granelli di sabbia a brillare
Giallo spento
Suono lento
Dà vita ad arancione scuro
Come di un futuro insicuro
Come di una fiaba la trama
Come del cuore che ama
La luce dà vita al oscurità
Così è stato e così sempre sarà
Negli abissi più profondi, del mare… la cantina
Una polena dimenticata guida la fauna marina
Michelle ‘Mikhaila’ Muscat