Project ‘Haiku Prelude – Haiku Kami’ is dedicated to all victims of the earthquake, tsunami and Fokushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
11 - 13 March 2012
Sunday 11th March 2012 at 2.46pm – 6pm Exhibition Opening and the Book Launch
Tuesday 13th March at 6.30 – 8.30pm – Closing Party
Pop Up Gallery
Opening Time: Sun 2 – 6pm, Mon 2 – 6pm, Tue 2 – 8.30pm
12 St. Alban’s Grove
London W8 5PN
Tube: High Street Kensington
Bus: 9, 10, 27, 28, 49, 52, 70, 328, 452, C1
Carolina Khouri
Artist and Project Leader:
carolina@carolinakhouri.com
mob.0044 /0/ 780 9745 565
Series “Haiku Prelude – Haiku Kami”, 2010 - 2011
‘That evening, in the Rue Raynouard, I realised quite vividly that if I were a painter,
or if I had, often, that kind of emotion, or even if I had the energy to get paints and brushes and keep at it, I might found a new school of painting, of "non-representative" painting, a painting that would speak only by arrangements in colour.’ - Ezra Pound. The moment as described by Ezra Pound did lead to his famous haiku “Metro”.
The project ‘Haiku Prelude – Haiku Kami’ developed out of a series of paintings that
reminded the artist Carolina Khouri of haiku verse. After researching haiku further
and discovering the quote by the poet Ezra Pound in his note about the moment, the
encapsulating core idea for the project ‘Haiku Prelude – Haiku Kami’ was conceived.
The’ Haiku Prelude – Haiku Kami’ art series is inspired by traditional and
contemporary Japanese and western haiku. It features 27 haiku coupled with an
abstract paintings. Free of any intellectual analysis this intuitive approach makes a
statement about the actual feelings expressed in each haiku.
The style used in the project is adapted from the painter Jaroslaw Kobylkiewicz
who is responsible for originating this particular style and composition of
painting.
Freshness and clarity of thoughts in haiku is radiant although it has grown
through many layers. It is a process of simplifying an idea to an absolute point.
The complexity of each individual element of the paintings is built on other
details to create a simple yet inseparable form and from this point the ‘Haiku
Prelude – Haiku Kami’ project started.
The project was conceived around the time of the earthquake and tsunami in
Japan in March 2011 and is dedicated to the victims of the disastrous events. In
the light of this tragedy, artist’s project aim is to help Momo – Kaki Orphans Fund,
by donating the proceeds gathered from the publication of the series. The fund's aim is to provide ongoing support and education to those children who lost their
families during The Great East Tohoku Earthquake.
Carolina Khouri hopes that the publication will serve as a testament to the cross-
pollination of British and Japanese artistic practice, but also as an evolving
memorial to those that suffered as a result of the recent tragedies in Japan.
It is the first publication of it's kind and as such it has received support and
encouragement from all the living authors, haiku whose is included in the project.
The book also includes an introduction by Kuniharu Shimizu (haiku poet and haiga
artist) and the foreword by President of the European Council
Mr Herman Van Rompuy (haiku poet).
The project ‘Haiku Prelude – Haiku Kami’ has been reviewed by the British Haiku
Society and recommended to the public and donors. The Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation and Polish Cultural Institute provided financial support for the
publication and Baltic Restaurant did sponsor the project.
Featured haiku poets:
Bashõ, Buson, Darek Brzóska Brzózkiewicz, David Cobb, Juan delGado, Caroline
Gourlay, James William Hackett, Gary Hotham, Teiko Inahata, Issa, Jack Kerouac,
Ezra Pound, Herman Van Rompuy, Ryõkan, Ryõta, Kuniharu Shimizu, Takaya
Soshu, Takaha Shugyo, Alison Williams, Richard Wright, Goto Yahan.
Carolina Khouri is a Polish / Lebanese artist, who has been living in London for eight years, where she graduated as an interior designer from The University of the
Arts London. Her art mentors inspired her to penetrate innovative techniques and
styles. She aimed at finding an expression and manner that her art can appear in its
individual recognition and to define her own singular identity as an artist. For over
the past decade her paintings went to the private collections. She is the ASC artist.
In 2011 she joined art group ‘Page 6’.
