Bridge: Barnes
Title: Barnes Bridge
Writer: Susannah Hart
Artist: Andy Hayes
Image: 20cm x 25cm
Paper 28cm x 36cm, Screenprint on paper, unframed
Description:
Andy: What struck me about Barnes Bridge was its Victorian utilitarian physicality. The river flows beneath, but what if the bridge was a natural element too? I sketched the bridge, water and clouds with melted candle wax, because it’s hard to control; a loose-limbed approach to mark making, and then I produced a two-colour screenprint. Susannah’s poem perfectly complements this image, her words formed gradually as she regularly strolled over the bridge from southeast to northwest and back again.
BARNES BRIDGE
Susannah Hart
darkling at sunset water under the arches
bearing the weight of the day’s crossings
the heavy hang of the girders the creak
of the tracks damp understone ripe with
pigeon feathered with moss back and there
deep into riverflow the reflective bridge
asks the question of itself over and over
wheels rattle the old iron weeds whisper
and sway the tide offers the tide takes