Metonymy exhibition

Italo Calvino once asked: “Whom do we write a novel for? Whom do we write a poem for?” Calvino answered his own question: “For people who have read a number of other novels, a number of other poems. A book is written so that it can be put beside other books and take its place on a hypothetical bookshelf.”

The proposition behind the Metonymy exhibition is to my eyes a similar question and it is a fitting project for our post-everything social climate. One problem in literature and the fine arts is that each is so finely enmeshed in its respective “hypothetical bookshelf” that the audience – often peers – draw conclusions which are often way off the mark from what the writer, poet or artist may have intended. Metonymy addresses this gap.

When words and visual arts occasionally collude the results are perhaps even more unpredictable than each would be on its own. As noted above, writers, poets and artists, similar to a degree through holding creative occupations, employ differing methodologies which relate intricately to the shared traditions and received wisdom of their respective crafts.

Combining authorial voices, as proposed by the instigators of the Metonymy project, has allowed artists and writers to develop an understanding of each others languages in the process of teaming up on a project. The sharing of knowledge in this peer reviewed environment appears to have had a largely positive flow-on in this instance and a number of great new works are the result.

Not taking anything away from academic endeavours, the purpose of the Metonymy project has the simple aim of creative people enriching one anothers knowledge. In many ways it is more generous – both for the participants and the viewer – than most art exhibitions and for this the organisers should be commended.

Matt Blomeley

Metonymy. Cross Street Studios, Auckland, 14-24 May 2008