Fragmenting the West Coast

beholden

2023-06-27T12:42:27-07:00

Comprising two lines of poetic text flowing along a 114-foot-long map of the Columbia River, this powerful image-poem by acclaimed poets Fred Wah and Rita Wong presents language yearning to understand the consequences of our hydroelectric manipulation of one of North America’s largest river systems.

beholden: a poem as long as the river stems from the interdisciplinary artistic research project “River Relations: A Beholder’s Share of the Columbia River,” undertaken as a response to the damming and development of the Columbia River in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, as well as to the upcoming renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty. Authors Fred Wah and Rita Wong spent time exploring various stretches of the river, all the way to its mouth near Astoria, Oregon. They then spent several months creating long poems along the Columbia, each searching for a language that evoked the complexities of our colonial appropriation of it. beholden was then assembled as a page-turning book that reproduces the two long poems as they respond to the meanderings of the river flowing two thousand kilometres through Canada, the United States, and the territories and reserves of Indigenous Peoples. Visual artist Nick Conbere then transferred this winding footprint into a monumental, 114-foot horizontal banner.

beholden: a poem as long as the river “reads” the geographic, historical, political, and social dimensions of the Columbia River, literally and figuratively, proposing two contrasting kinds of attention. As both a stand-alone poem and an accompanying piece to the visual installation exhibited at various galleries, beholden represents a vital contribution to a larger dialogue around the river through visual art, writing, and public engagement.

https://talonbooks.com/books/beholden

Ancestral Home

2023-03-01T15:16:42-08:00

A poem in/about/of Vancouver Island, Vancouver, and Japan.

Four deaths per mile

2023-07-02T20:37:41-07:00

A poem about the labour of Chinese immigrants during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Untitled

2023-06-26T15:15:32-07:00

A poem about Whitehorse, Yukon; Chinatown, BC; Vancouver Island, and Kamloops, BC.

Destinations

2023-07-02T20:33:11-07:00

A poem about Manila, Philippines, and Vancouver and Kelowna, BC, Canada.

Excerpts from: All the Time

2023-06-26T15:26:44-07:00

A poem about Kelowna; Vernon; Enderby; Ucluelet, and Shanghai, China.

Unsettle

2023-06-26T15:39:04-07:00

An image about migration; in Kelowna, BC.

A Declaration, Love

2023-02-23T20:26:20-08:00

A poem about Vancouver, BC.

braid

2023-02-23T20:21:13-08:00

A poem about the mainland of BC.

case study

2023-05-12T12:52:03-07:00

A poem about the Mainland in BC.

Islands Along Mount Pleasant

2023-07-24T16:11:35-07:00

A poem about Vancouver, BC in Canada.

manggang hilaw

2023-07-02T21:30:34-07:00

A poem about the Philippines and Canada.

Missing Asian Girl

2023-03-01T15:01:38-08:00

A poem about/in Kitsilano, Vancouver, BC.

Mother's Line as Logarithmic Spiral

2023-02-24T12:01:18-08:00

A poem about Kitsilano, Vancouver and Onay Beach, Samar.

nanay

2023-06-15T14:39:02-07:00

A poem geographically set in Taiwan, the Philippines, and British Columbia.

Pre-existing Conditions

2023-07-24T16:14:03-07:00

A poem about Vancouver, BC in Canada.

the world begins with a suitcase

2023-06-26T15:01:09-07:00

A poem about the Philippines, China, UK, and Canada.

Vancouver City Map

2023-03-01T15:06:24-08:00

A poem mapping Vancouver, BC.

we were young

2023-06-26T15:12:47-07:00

A poem about the Philippines, Canada, and the UK.

winter portrait

2023-06-26T15:49:28-07:00

A poem about Vancouver, BC.