detail from a CUMULATE cloud sculpture
When first designing the paper cloud mobiles for The Shape of Silver in 2021, I created a pattern on the inside to peek through the paper openings, complementing the hidden color in my sculpture Tulips for Clemens. At UW La Crosse Art Department, large rolls of printmaking paper were silkscreened with a pattern of dashes and dots that created a sense of interior movement.
I have always enjoyed poetry, my first visual arts and poetry collaboration was with Matt Mason in 2003 for an Omaha-based arts experiment through Medusa Project, At the Corner of Art and Poetry. We drew names, Matt and I were paired up to create new work. It was so impactful to my art practice that I continue to gain inspiration from poetry in my work.
Haiku Stones You build Ecologically and Sing Memories
Collaboration between Leslie Iwai and Matt Mason for Medusa Project's "At the Corner of Art and Poetry", 2003
As the concept for CUMULATE began developing at the end of 2022, I was inspired by these first cloud mobiles and wanted to reveal bright interior color by refining the design and perforating the cloud surface. “How can these perforations have a pattern and be meaningful?” became an important question as I considered the proposal site, the Calvin T. Ryan Library on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Holding archival material and giving access to the wide expanse of digital (cloud) storage and information movement is one important part of a modern library. With this in mind, I decided to explore something coded and literary that would lend a meaningful pattern to the clouds. Binary 1’s and 0’s came to mind first but as I considered the history of the technological movement of communication I wanted to go a bit further back to Morse code.
Perforating the clouds with Morse code quickly turned to the question of content. What could be read (or listened to) within the clouds of Cumulate?
So naturally I landed on morse code translations of Nebraska poetry for Cumulate. For me, poetry is a distillation of culture that when released can rain down and refresh a cultural landscape like the clouds onto a parched field. This metaphor so inspired me that I reached out to Matt, now Nebraska’s State Poet (!!!) to see if he would be interested in collaborating with me as the poetry curator for Cumulate. He enthusiastically agreed! I can’t wait to introduce you to the poetry selections that highlight the beauty of a Nebraska sky!
Fun coincidence, Matt was in Kearney for a poetry reading the same day that I made the Cumulate Proposal!
Leslie Iwai, Marjorie Maas and Matt Mason at Kitt's in Kearney- Day of the Cumulate proposal in 2023!
Morse code of poetry from the CUMULATE mural