An introduction to the reading by Patricia Farrell on 1st July
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Patricia Farrell is not as well known to us as she should be. Part of that
injustice derives from what seems to be her own diffidence about promoting
her work. It is also because of the way things are: of necessity, writing
is only one thing that we do among many; Patricia is a working mother, a
student, and an artist/writer and probably has other roles besides that I
know nothing of. I know how seriously she takes those three; and, as John
Hall says in Poets on writing , "as a material process writing takes time",
meaning a great deal of time. The amount of her work in the public domain
is relatively small and, for reasons beyond her control, relatively poorly
distributed.
One other reason, perhaps, that Patricia does not have a reputation
commensurate with the quality of her work, is the range of her work: she is
a graphic artist, working in two and three dimensions, in addition to being
a writer. Those of you who attend the New River Project workshop will know
that she is a fine performer in what are sometimes called "sound texts" and
with bodily movement. While her published written work shows careful and
time-consuming preparation and reworking, her performance, solo and in
multi-voice, demonstrates her skill and imagination in improvisatory modes.
She is, therefore, not easily pigeon-holed and that, oddly, affects the
scale of a reputation.
You will find her work in the Writers Forum and RWC lists and in numerous
Ship of fools books. All these books demonstrate her skill in integrating
verbal and visual texts so that the one mode both supports and
counterpoints the other. Her visual work goes way beyond mere illustration.
Furthermore, her visual work renders the distinction between the
representational and the abstract largely a meaningless exercise - her
images encourage not just multiple meanings but multiple processes of
generating meaning.
Her written work moves through and mediates between a range of voices and
registers, tapping a variety of genres, always remaking. I know from
publishing her that she is probably her own sternest critic, quite likely
to turn upon a piece of work she had previously regarded as finished,
rejecting or reworking it.
Her new work is always surprising and rewarding.
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