Exquisite Corpse #4
\n\nInspired by Crookhey\nHall and Coleridge’s Kubla Khan
\n\nComposed 16 October\n2019
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Her anxious grasp, her\nbaffled gaze!
\n\nHer lifeless body, her\nvacant stare!
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His nimble feet, her\nslim physique!
\n\nHis flashing eyes, his\nfloating hair!
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Her giant legs, her\nmassive frame!
\n\nHer haunted face, all\ntoo fair!
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Her flaxen hair, his\ngaudy gape!
\n\nShe hastens from his\ndevilish glare!
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Her outstretched arms,\nher wispy gown!
\n\nShe shouldn’t touch,\nproceed with care!
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His dire glance, her\nghostly home!
\n\nAnd all should cry,\nBeware! Beware!
\n\n","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Course Content","textentryhtml":"\n\nStudent Essay for CWR 209 / ART 223 / COM 240 / GSS 277 Along the Edge: Leonora Carrington
Carrington’s Crookhey\nHall: Apparitions from a past
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In the art works of\nLeonora Carrington there is often an unforgettable sense of place, a mapping of\nboundaries and entrances punctuated by lines and apertures that the viewer is\nforced to navigate. Carrington’s Crookhey Hall is no exception —the viewer\nis locked into this space by the shrub-lined roads before the artist’s\nchildhood home and the tree line behind it. In fact, the way in which the\nghostly figures in white garbs interact with both the lines and apertures in Crookhey\nHall reflect Carrington’s concern with a space from her past.
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Carrington’s\nchildhood home, a manifestation of her past, is at the center of this piece and\nthe white figures interacting with it showcase different facets of the artist’s\nrelationship with this past. Atop Crookhey Hall, a white figure crawls on its\nknees, bound to the building below with an outstretching arm but very much al aire libre. To the left of the building, the space maintains\na similar level of magnetism; another white figure swoops down toward a gap\nbetween the balcony’s columns. Suspended outside but aiming for the hall’s\ninterior, the figure is as much a part of the outside world as it is a part of Crookhey\nHall, the focus of this piece’s title.
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On the right side\nof Crookhey Hall stands a third, impressive figure in white that is almost as\ntall as the building —not only is this figure looking straight at Crookhey Hall,\nbut it is pointing at the juncture between the hall’s roof and its exterior\nwall. At the center of this figure’s fascination with Crookhey Hall is this\njuncture of interior and exterior spaces, this here and there or then and now\nthat parallels the artist’s introspection and focus on a place and time that she\nis far away from. As magnificent as these white figures are for both their\nability to fly and their impressive scale, they are still drawn in by the black\nhole in the middle of this green landscape.
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As inferred from\nher collection of short stories, the life that Carrington was expected to live\nas a young woman was a life that she chose to escape. Undoubtedly, the white\nfigure closest to the viewer shares this sentiment of wanting to escape this\nspace, running along the road toward the edge of the print. But the black\nfigure that floats directly behind it suggests a movement in the opposition\ndirection, a confrontational attitude that recalling a dark past requires. Even\nthe black figure’s direct gaze, aimed at the viewer of the piece, forces a\nconfrontation between the spectator and the art: “I see you. I know that you\nare watching,” the figure in black says to the viewer. And so, the fascination\nof the other white figures with Crookhey Hall becomes more confrontational;\nrather than escaping this space, these figures are forcing themselves to\nconfront it.
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As was her life,\nCarrington’s Crookhey Hall is full of movements toward and away from her\npast, and these are reflected in the movements of the ghostly figures all\naround her childhood home. Carrington’s sentiments of confrontation and escape can\nbe beautifully explored along the lines and apertures that fill this familiar\nspace.
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Jesús\nMartínez-Garza, Princeton Class of 2021
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