Vortextique

The world of visual poetry is known for its collaborations, and some visual poets create a large percentage of their works in this way. What is interesting about K.S. Ernst and Sheila E. Murphy's collaborations is how seamless they are, as if created from one intelligence, even though the poets come from different areas of major practice. Ernst is highly attuned to the world of the visual arts, producing works designed for gallery spaces. Murphy is an active textual poet and a more recent participant in visual poetry. In "Vortextique," the vortex before us is literal: a maelstrom of words that suggests the ultimate artificiality of linguistic signs, the ambiguity of speech, and the impossibility of absolutely accurate communication.—Geof Huth