Q&A: "I see art as a form of vigilance"

Saturday 09 May 2020

A local poet has opened up about why she sees art as a "form of vigilance", as she shared her verse about a "bus named Liberty" written in celebration of today's milestone in the island's history.

Linda Rose Parkes was one of 17 islanders commissioned to write about ideas of "occupation, liberation and reconciliation" as part of an "exhibition of words" organised to commemorate 75 years since Jersey was freed from Nazi rule.

seventy-five years goes digital!
Click on the link below to find out about our 'seventy-five years' #Liberation75 poetry project, and how we will be sharing it digitally from Friday 1 May!https://t.co/gxjcK3A34w pic.twitter.com/uQ9J7s5TD9

— Jersey Arts Centre (@JsyArtsCentre) April 30, 2020

Each piece was due to be exhibited at the Arts Centre, but, due to its closure as part of measures to curb the spread of covid-19, they are now being shared online.

Express caught up with Linda to learn about her work, and find out what Liberation 75 means to her...

What do you like about writing?

Well I don’t always like writing poetry. Sometimes I feel as though I’m trying to glide in gum-boots. But when the flow is there, it can feel as though a large, fertile quiet has opened up in my head, and, then, almost anything can generate ideas, connections to a larger whole. What fascinates me are the things that are partially hidden, I like searching below surfaces.

What is your ‘Seventy-five years’ poem about?

It explores the ripple effect of one good act. The poem enacts a scene on a bus - I love bus travel and my ideas often come from simply being among people, quietly observing, listening.

What role do you think the arts have to play in the celebration of Liberation?

I think this is a very important project which Daniel Austin has initiated. 75 years since Liberation and where do we stand, as an island?

How do we view past and present? What have we made of our freedom? Liberty is such a fragile thing, it needs nurturing, it needs constant and critical attention.

Pictured: Artwork by Linda, titled 'Handed on a plate' 

I believe that art is able to engage the imagination and the emotions, to make the difficult questions come alive to us.

Art can create language or images to surprise us, confront us in our habits of thought. It can create a still space in which transformations or slight shifts can move us, give us solace, or challenge us to reach further into ourselves, into the culture. I see art as a form of vigilance.

And 75 years on, I believe we need art as an act of engagement with the hard questions we need to be asking.

An extract from Linda's poem, 'A bus named Liberty'...

'and the driver, tired of watching

hope dwindle, puts his foot

on the brake, pulls up

and waits till she climbs onboard,

finds a seat at the window.

And in that unscheduled

pause, an echo on a breeze

bounces down the aisle, a surge

to the heart, a circuit connected'. 

Click HERE to read Linda's full poem, along with works from other poets. 

This article first appeared in Connect Magazine, which you can read by clicking HERE.