Hooked

I don’t know where I’ll end up with this because as I’ve been going through various meanings of hooked. I’ve come across a link to an exhibition at the Science Gallery, London. It was entitled ‘HOOKED: WHEN WANT BECOMES NEED’ which had taken place between the 21st Sept 2018 and 27th January 2019.

the Science Gallery, London

It says ‘From gambling to gaming and smartphones to social media, HOOKED invited you to question what makes us as humans vulnerable to addiction and interrogated the underlying factors and routes to recovery. We invited you to challenge the stigmas associated with addiction, consider addiction as a health issue we are all susceptible to, and explore how recovery takes many forms.’

Which didn’t sound that promising until I saw some of the names of the Exhibits. The first one to make me look again was entitled ‘The Curtain of Broken Dreams’ by Natasha Caruana. I mean what a title for a poem.

It actually refers to the collection of pawned, discarded golden rings, which physically enmesh you (in the exhibition presumably), and which represents approximately 1% of divorces in the UK over a typical 12-month period.

The Curtain of Broken Dreams, Natasha Caruana, 2017

Number seven in the list of exhibits (there are twenty four) is an exhibition with the title of ‘Short Periods of Structured Nothingness’. Absolutely brilliant. I know a couple of poets who could really go to town with that.

Apparently it relates how Blast Theory worked with an anonymised group of young women who shared their lives and experiences with the artists over seven days through instant messaging, photos and phone calls.

Katriona Beales exhibit is called Entering the Machine Zone II which I find fascinating as much for the title (it’s the number II that intrigues me) as for the work itself which (from the brief summary) explores the theory that a major driver for gamblers is not money, but the dissociative, trance like state that continual play generates.

Entering the Machine Zone II, Katriona Beales, 2018

Tony Smoking Backwards by Richard Billingham is a title that could be worked on. The summary says: Richard’s subjects reflect his working class roots, but the underlying issues in his work are universal: anyone from any class can get bored or develop dependencies, even if some do so with more material comfort.

And exhibit number 22 is the wonderfully titled Another Day on Earth (Marshmallow Pants) by Olivia Locher. I haven’t read the whole summary as I don’t want to spoil the beginning:

‘Ladies tights stuffed with mouthwatering marshmallows suggest an unwieldy, uncomfortable body, deformed by the fluffy, swollen confections...’

Well all that was unexpected. And I’ve never heard of the Science Gallery London. As I said earlier the above exhibition was from 2018/9. The current one is entitled Quantum Untangled and is on until Feb 28th, 2026.

It can be found here:

King’s College London, Guy’s Campus
Great Maze Pond
London SE1 9GU
Nearest station: London Bridge (use Guy’s Hospital exit).

I’ve been writing about how the titles of the exhibits could be the title of a poem as a hook to read the poem which has got me thinking about a title which has done that for me. After a bit of a think I’m going for ‘Song of Myself’ by Walt Whitman as not only did it attract my attention at the time I first saw it but it also has the best first and hookish lines, in my opinion.

Walt Whitman, Song Of Myself

Song of Myself (1892 version)

1

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

                                                                    Walt Whitman


Thanks for reading, Terry Q.