An exhibition on women poets and fashion is coming to the National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre
The Southbank Centre to open a free exhibition during London Fashion Week exploring the relationship between the language of poets and the clothes they wear.
Image: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Aveugle Voix, 1975. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; gift of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation. Photo: Trip Callaghan
Poets in Vogue presents the fashion worlds and poetic work of seven women poets through a series of displays including an iconic tartan skirt owned and worn by Sylvia Plath.
Also on display is a reconstruction of Anne Sexton’s red ‘reading dress’, creative interpretations of Audre Lorde’s, Edith Sitwell’s and Stevie Smith’s signature looks, a fabric adaptation of a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks and the clothes-performances of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.
The exhibition will challenge visitors to rethink assumptions about the superficiality of fashion, offering new perspectives on the close connections between language and dress, and emphasising poetry as an embodied practice that includes live performance. Curated by Researchers (Sophie Oliver, Sarah Parker and Gesa Werner) from the University of Liverpool and Loughborough University. Click here for more.
Location: National Poetry Library, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Date: 17 February – 25 June 2023. Price: Free.