VISUAL ART

The visual art of The EBB Project has been shown in installation with the other curious objects, performance relics, and photographs that I have collected and created. As part of an installation it expresses the sympathy that exists between things, ideas and disciplines. Video will be available here soon.

Visual art emerging from The EBB Project is also a form of research. In other words, the art comes first and holds ideas that I sometimes further explore in articles and creative writing. A good example of this is EBB Trinity ("Sonnet 2") a mixed-media collage and drawing with text.

I am using the three variants of EBB's 1861 final photograph in this work. The floating hands in EBB Trinity ("Sonnet 2") are a reference to the spirit manifestations that fascinated EBB and so many people in the 19th century. The hands also symbolize inspiration. The quote written on the middle, seated image of Elizabeth is from "Sonnet 2" of her Sonnets From the Portuguese:

"But only three in all God's universe
Have heard this word thou hast said, --"

The word is Love. My focus has been on EBB's 44 love sonnets: Sonnets from the Portuguese. In the process of creating EBB Trinity I began to contemplate EBB's use of three and her conception and presentation of the three who heard the word Love in "Sonnet 2." I direct the interested reader to my article: "Sonnet 1 and Sonnet 2 of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese: Setting the stage for divine reunification." I explored some of the ideas that came from EBB Trinity in this paper. Find it published in Studies in Browning and His Circle, Volume 26 (September 2005).

Another example is Casa Guidi Cutwind, a mixed-media collage of created and found images with poem.

Casa Guidi Cutwind uses the shape of the Casa Guidi, the building in Florence where Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning lived for 15 years, and layers it with the image of the Cutwind, a stone masonry building used by EBB's ancestors in Jamaica to escape hurricanes. Both the poets had Jamaican ancestry. The similarity of the shapes struck me and as the artwork was coming together I wrote the poem (seen on the left side of the work) in response to events that occurred in these masonry structures.

Selected Visual Art from The EBB Project

Interested presenters click here for more information on hosting installations and exhibitions.

10 Dream Drawings 2001.
Click the title to view the drawings in succession. The drawings are actually on two 14" x 17" pieces of white paper and were published as such in Performance Research, Volume 9, Number 1 (Routledge) March 2004.

Sonnet I (Sonnets from the Portuguese) Mixed-media collage. Click here to read Neri's artist statement from a 2007 exhibit of this work.

Minerva Descends Mixed-media with text.

Mirror Images Mixed-media 3d assemblages: Antique 1840's mirror with transparency & a Tiny antique enamel frame containing a digital image of the 1860 photograph of Elizabeth Barrett Browning with image of myself dressed as her digitally superimposed.

Portrait of Robert Browning #1 (in collaboration with Julia Cameron)
3d assemblage of found and antique objects.

Asolo Mixed-media assemblage: lace, antique carte de visite photograph of Robert Browning, pressed leaves with text written on them.

Black and White EBB Mixed-media collage.

E Bee Bee ("Sonnet 15") Mixed-media collage of multiple images of EBB with two bees.

EBB Bodice, Last Poems Mixed-media: Antique clothing, hair, black lace paper, and text.

Casa Guidi Cutwind Mixed-media collage of created and found images with text.

EBB Trinity ("Sonnet 2") Mixed-media collage of created and found images with text.

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