MOVING STILL REVIEW - WESTERN WRITERS' CENTRE

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CERAMIC SCULPTURE - RAKU

    RAKU

                 

      JAPANESE CERAMICS

Raku means:  random happiness! 

The sculpture is fired (baked in a kiln)

using a Japanese method which has been employed since the 16th century. 

The sculpture is fired at a temperature of 1000 ° which takes about 7 hours. After application of the glaze, it is fired again, this time at around 960 ° for about 4 hours depending on the glaze. It is taken out of the kiln at this temperature and put into a container of sawdust and sealed.

When the very hot sculpture makes contact with the sawdust, the resulting flames starve the sealed container of oxygen. This causes elements in the glaze to surface.

The results are almost always unpredictable

Raku is not waterproof.

RAKU

 

  CÉRAMIQUE JAPONAISE

Raku signifie : le bonheur dans le hasard !

La sculpture est cuite suivant un procédé japonais employé depuis le XVIème siècle. 

La sculpture est tournée ou modelée en grès, suivie d'un long polissage et cuite à 1000°. Après la pose de l'émail, elle sera de nouveau cuite à 960° pendant quatre heures avec un défournement immédiat. 

Le choc thermique qui en découle provoque des craquelures qui se révèleront par un enfumage dans un récipient rempli de copeaux de bois. 

Les résultats sont presque toujours imprévisible!

Raku n’est pas étanche.

MADONNA

AZTEC

 

BANDED TORSO

Measles Man

MOVING STILL - LAUNCH 26TH JUNE 2009

On the evening of the day temperatures of 32 degrees were recorded - Cinnamon launched three new anthologies in London.

COPIES of MOVING STILL ₤7.99 (including postage) AVAILABLE FROM
B. Dordi,
11, Bath Road,
EMSWORTH
Hants, PO10 7EP
U.K.
Please make cheques payable to B. Dordi

It was great to have Ann Drysdale and Christine West present.

Mike Horwood reading his translations from the Finnish of Martti Hynynen's poems.

LONDON LAUNCH OF MOVING STILL

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MOVING STILL - REVIEWS

Copies available from B. Dordi, 11 Bath Rd, Emsworth, Hants PO10 7EP   ₤7.99 (incl.postage) Please make cheques payable to B. Dordi 

William Oxley reviews Moving Still        

U.A. Fanthorpe and R. V. Bailey review Moving Still

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MOVING STILL

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Launch date: Friday 26th June 2009

Camden London

APPLE AND EVE

Apple and Eve

- a poem-
Barbara Dordi

Illustrated by
Russi Dordi























Publisher: Picture-Poems
ISBN 0 9536800 0 2
£5.50


Apple and Eve was launched at the Gibbs Gallery, Canterbury in 1999. As well as copies of the book, the original illustrations: 9 watercolours and 1 oil painting were on display. The exhibition lasted for three weeks.

Apple and Eve takes a wry look inside the Garden of Eden. The poem explores Eve's temptation through a dialogue between Eve and the Serpent.




'I wonder about evil too.
Is it sturdy and gnarled like this tree?
Does it have four heads like the river out of Eden? Is it invisible, like wind? Did God give it perfume like the ripe fruit above me, fat with his secret? Is it soft and warm like flesh, all shades of blue like sky on river; does it flash red and gold in the green like the hummingbird?
Does evil have a voice? Does it coo, babble, moan, shriek? Does it sing - low, high? Does it scream?'

Adam and Eve - watercolour - Russi Dordi

Following the launch, the exhibition was shown at selected libraries throughout Kent.

When our French friends saw Apple and Eve, they loved the illustrations but couldn't understand the text and so asked for a translation - hence Eve et la Pomme - the French version, was born.

Entre-Deux - Two Francophiles in Alaigne, Barbara & Russi Dordi,

Picture Poems/Hayward Design, ISBN 0-9536800-3-7

Barbara & Russi Dordi

photo: Eric Hall

ENTRE DEUX - Two Francophiles in Alaigne

ALAIGNE - Watercolour by Russi Dordi

This book is a record in poems and pictures of our first few years in the small village of Alaigne in the South of France, 30 km from Carcassonne.












Entre-Deux contains over 32 colour illustrations of poems written in English. When the book is turned upside down and back to front, the French translations can be read.

For the last 9 years my husband and I have divided our time between Kent and the south of France where we have renovated an old agricultural building and created a Mediterranean garden. Poems and paintings which emanated from this project have found expression in Entre-Deux – Two Francophiles in Alaigne, written in English and translated into French. The vine-clad hills; conversing with villagers; singing in the local choir; reading and writing poetry in French; country life in the Midi is extremely seductive.

Russi's interpretation of the view of 
LES PICS DES TROIS SEIGNEURS from our terrace in Alaigne.




Extract from Entre-Deux: page 19


Autumn in Alaigne

Changes seep inside you, breaking surface
now and then: greens fading to gold, fading
to copper, fading to rust; vine leaves
are having their tips hennaed. Only when you climb
the hills, the great tablecloth of the Aude
spread before you, are your eyes fully opened:
as if overnight, the alchemist
has emptied his crucible on the landscape,

the magnesium glow of vineyards
his most precious transmutation.
Sunflower land is now neatly combed, her tanned
scalp flecked with flint-sharp bones. Giraffe plane trees
stride the road to the village, roofs and church spire
fast turning rose. And the black silhouettes
of cypresses? Cathar warriors
guarding the peace in the place of the dead.


You want to embrace it, make it a part
of you, this fleeting slot between extremes
that greedily swallows summer warmth,
gulping down whole chunks of daylight
to regurgitate amazing vibrancies.
Under a fading Languedoc sky
you try to capture it on film, on paper,
but the result is always a lie.
Like an arrow in flight, this unstoppable, heart-
stopping mettle that is autumn, has you
scanning your internal landscape,
targeting truth.

Autumn in Alaigne

Entre-Deux - Two Francophiles in Alaigne, Barbara & Russi Dordi, Picture Poems/Hayward Design, ISBN 0-9536800-3-7

Albert 

"When Barbara and Russi Dordi bought a house in France, their neighbours in the unspoiled village of Alaigne in the Midi were very welcoming. On discovering that the couple were artists, they insisted that they exhibit at the Fête de la Fleur the following May. Barbara was so enamoured by the landscape and people that she had already written a few poems recording her feelings, so since nobody in the village spoke English, she translated the work ready for the exhibition. When Russi had illustrated her poems, the couple made a pamphlet as a convenient way of recording their first year in Alaigne, as well as showing their neighbours exactly how they felt about living in France. The exhibition was a great success, largely due to the portrait of Albert, their immediate neighbour, which is very true-to-life, and of which he is enormously proud, so much so that he invited his relatives from neighbouring villages to view it!
Equinox, September, 2005

Heatwave

PRESENCES

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PRESENCES

poems by Barbara Dordi

& Michael Curtis

Illustrations

Russi Dordi

'The result of an unusual and exciting collaboration, Presences is a finely made poetry pamphlet of work....memories, ancestors, 'angels', visions or other metaphysical speculations....The sequence reveals echoes and allusions that spark between the texts. Ten of the poems find colourful and vibrant expression in paintings by Russi Dordi who also designed the cover.

CHANGING FACES

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

SUNG EUCHARIST


Blurred behind windows
condensation beaded,
tree light wink the promise
of a clear road to Canterbury.

Through lofty stone arches
- no fee to pay today-
red-cheeked clerics mouth
the first seasonal greeting.

Banks of candles flanking the altar
flicker as white frilled choirs file in;
latecomers led in discretely,
the organ rumbling thunder.

At the great west door, a rush of air;
trumpets fanfare the New Arrival;
in his Joseph coat, the archbishop
leads, 'O Come all ye faithful'.

The earnest of prayers,
the topical sermon,
the sign of peace with perfect strangers,
the collect,
the carols,
the soul piercing anthems,
the final blessing
that lasts for a year.

Barbara Dordi

Philadelphus

Closing poem:
Barbara Dordi andMichael Curtis

BALANCING

The sheer possibility
is no easy matter
feet on earth
to feathered flight
as if we could do just that.

We stumble, stagger,
then propelled forward, leap
and suddenly we're here
where we always wanted to be –
realising it now,

changing places
as inclination takes us,
savouring sun, relishing shade,
catching balance
on a fledgling wind.

Barbara Dordi and Michael Curtis

EVE ET LA POMME

This book has proved to be very popular with French readers - especially females - they often come up to me to
say how much they identify with the female perspective of the piece.

ÈVE ET LA POMME

- un poème -
Barbara Dordi
Illustré par Russi Dordi

A loose translation of Apple and Eve, Ève et la Pomme is a French version of the English original. The 'events' in this French version are somewhat re-arranged to suit the French language and culture. Translating was an interesting exercise which prompted me to revise the English version.

Extract: page 8

'Comment pourrai je connaître ce qui est bon?

Je m’interroge sur le mal aussi.
Est-il vigoureux et noueux comme cet arbre?
A-t-il quatre têtes commes les fleuves d’Eden?
Est-il invisible et sauvage comme le vent?
Dieu, lui a-t-il donné un parfum comme au fruit mûr au-dessus de moi – si gros avec son secret?
Est il doux et lisse comme la chair,
a-t-il toutes les nuances de bleu comme le ciel sur le fleuve?
Clignote-t-il rouge et or sur la verdure
comme le colibri?
Le mal, a-t-il une voix grave, aiguë?
Roucoule-t-il, babille-t-il, gémit-il, parle-t-il?
Chante-t-il – bas, haut?
Crie-t-il?'

Picture-Poems
Deco Partnership
ISBN 0 9536800 1 0
£4.95