Verses In Reverse

Vinyl on Reflective Acrylic sheets, Magnet, Steel backing, LED light
January 2022

Verses in Reverse is an invitation by Augustine Paredes to engage with a text where the audience is offered the freedom to alter the narrative. Conventionally, with texts and verses, the reader has little or no agency to change the flow of the narrative or its form. Augustine explores the imaginative freedom through access and alterity by allowing the words to be read, touched and transformed.

Drawing from the traditional Japanese poetry form Haiku consisting of three phrases and following a five-seven-five syllabic pattern, there are four haikus given as a gift, each one carrying a sense of longing, celebrating the notion of home. Each word is handwritten on a mirror, rendering the work participatory and providing space for introspection. Through the charm and playfulness of magnetic poetry, a sense of liberty is granted to the reader where they can arrange the words into their own verses producing new configurations and meanings at will.

Verses in Reverse by Augustine Paredes is part of Homecoming | A space for you, curated by Janine Gaëlle Dieudji and presented by Alserkal Arts Foundation.