Sarah JM Kolberg on Ian Hamilton Finlay

Ian Hamilton Finlay, stones stones stones Questions, 1966, typewriting on paper, 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Ian Hamilton Finlay, stones stones stones Questions, 1966, typewriting on paper, 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Ian Hamilton Finlay, stones stones stones Questions, 1966, typewriting on paper, 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Ian Hamilton Finlay, stones stones stones Questions, 1966, typewriting on paper, 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Merging the visual with the textual, concrete poetry presents a coterminous relationship between text and image: reading the words is not sufficient for understanding; one must see the words in order to apprehend the poem. In many cases, were one to read the text aloud the meaning of the poem would be lost. Early forms of concrete poetry used the positioning of words to create visual images, whether simple geometric shapes or objects that reflect the poem’s concepts, such as Ian Hamilton Finlay’s stones stones stones (1966). The positioning of the word stones, eight of them forming a squared arch, and the single word clouds in the upper right corner immediately creates an unmistakable image in our mind: a small garden hut with a window to the sky.

This work illustrates concrete poetry’s investment in the totality of meaning that emerges out of the intersection of word and image. Finlay’s stones stones stones is accompanied in the University at Buffalo’s Poetry Collection archive by a page of questions, inviting reader response and providing his address for the return of replies: “answers to: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Coaltown of Collange, Ceres, by Cupar, Fife, Scotland.” Some questions refer back to the poem’s words, reinforcing the notion that the image and its constituent text are coequal: “The subject of the poem is a small hut: what is the hut made of?” Others invite the reader to contemplate aspects of the work external to its content: “Does it seem to be a) in a valley b) by a river c) on top of a hill?” and “Might there be weeds around the hut? If so, why has the author not mentioned them?” These questions demonstrate that for Finlay, despite his work’s structural emphasis on the image/word relationship, even a concrete poem was not quite as closed to interpretation as one might initially assume.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, roundandRoundand, n.d., typewriting on paper, 8 x 5 inches (20.3 x 12.7 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Ian Hamilton Finlay, roundandRoundand, n.d., typewriting on paper, 8 x 5 inches (20.3 x 12.7 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

In addition to traditional concrete poems, Finlay experimented with a wide range of other poetic forms, including anagrams, one-line and even one-word poems, and other poetic fragments. In many of these works, he shifted away from an emphasis on the creation of a visual object toward an emphasis on investigating the process of signification and the networks of correspondence that constitute meaning. In these visual poems, the investment is in the variety of meanings available within the work and in the system of relationships across the entire work, as opposed to the relationship between one line or verse and the next, as in more traditional poetic forms. Finlay frequently materializes these relationships by employing a single word read in multiple directions or by pivoting multiple words around a single letter, much like in a crossword puzzle. As they require one to read multiply, these poems make manifest the ways in which such a text – and by extension, all texts – may be opened to multiple meanings. In refusing the hierarchical succession of lines we generally assume in reading, these poems can seem closer to art than text.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, y-o-u y-e-s, n.d., typewriting on paper, 8 x 5 inches (20.3 x 12.7 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Ian Hamilton Finlay, y-o-u y-e-s, n.d., typewriting on paper, 8 x 5 inches (20.3 x 12.7 cm). The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. © by courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay / Photo: The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Finlay’s y-o-u y-e-s offers an example. Two iterations of the word -r-o-s-e-s- appear horizontally, while on the left, two instances of the word -y-o-u- traverse the page diagonally, one reading from top to bottom, the other from bottom to top. In a mirrored configuration to the right is the word -y-e-s-. In the space between the two horizontal -r-o-s-e-s- the u from -y-o-u- and the s from -y-e-s- lie adjacent. The o in -y-o-u- is equally the o in -r-o-s-e-s-, while the e in -y-e-s- becomes the e in -r-o-s-e-s-. In addition to the words that are given to us by use of connecting lines, we read between the lines to discover the unconnected us. This unmarked word, emerging from the heart of the work, is the key to its meaning. The unrelated you, roses, and the Molly Bloom-esque yes all coalesce around us, clearly marking this as a love poem.

Such decentering of authorial control and focus on networks of correspondence allow each reader to determine their individual experience of the poem. In Finlay’s y-o-u y-e-s, rather than following the traditionally prescribed left-to-right, top-to-bottom flow, the reader can choose which line to read first and how to travel through the poem. Reading the poem puts the reader in the position of contravening the conventional rules of reading, which awakens the awareness that alternatives are possible. This awareness lies at the heart of the work’s political potential. When we are able to recognize that it is possible to read against conventional norms, we realize that other norms may be similarly challenged, other rules similarly breached, and it becomes possible for us to imagine other relationships with power.

Ian Hamilton Finlay Biography

Ian Hamilton Finlay (b. 1925, Nassau, Bahamas; d. 2006, Edinburgh, Scotland) was sent to Scottish boarding school at the age of 6. As a teenage, Finlay briefly attended Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps (1942). Following the war, he was employed as a shepherd, during which time he generated paintings, plays and short stories. Along with Jessie McGuffie, Finlay co-founded the Wild Hawthorn Press (1961). Finlay soon emerged as a leader of the concrete poetry movement, becoming one of Scotland’s most renowned artists. Finlay and his wife relocated to a Stonypath farm and transformed the surrounding hillside into a garden so-named Little Sparta (1966). Other examples of Finlay’s garden work include the Secret Grove at Kröller-Müller Sculpture Park, Otterlo, Netherlands; Improvement Garden at Stockwood Discovery Centre, Luton, England; and Fleur de L’Air at Provence, France. Finlay was short-listed for Britain’s Turner Prize (1985) and received the honorary appointment of a Commander of the British Empire (2002). Recent solo exhibitions took place at The Scottish National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh (2001); Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2003, 2007, 2011); David Nolan Gallery, New York (2009, 2013); Tate Britain, London (2013); and the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA (2014). In addition, Finlay’s work was included in the Tate Triennial at Tate Britain, London (2006). More information about his work may be found at http://www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com/.

Sarah JM Kolberg Biography
Sarah JM Kolberg is a PhD candidate in the Department of Visual Studies at the University at Buffalo specializing in the American and French post-WWII period, with additional areas of focus in narratology, queer theory, and queer subjectivity in experimental film. Her dissertation will focus on the Nouveaux Réalistes. She has won numerous awards as both a writer and independent film producer, holds a joint MA in English and Film, and will complete her MFA in Media Study this year.