Sophie Robinson
Two Poems
w h e r e t h e w o o d b i n e t w i n e t h
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“p u l s i o n” is an exploration of the negative sexuality portrayed in Roman Polanski's 1966 film Repulsion. By negative sexuality, I mean the lack of place or space for alternative sexualities, or even for a lack of sexuality, within a culture of compulsory heterosexuality. I was interested in what happened when one faces that which is found to be repulsive and in exploring what occurs in the subsequent turning away from that which is apparently abject. I have tried to create a meshing together of language which is taken from the film, reviews and from my own commentaries. “p u l s i o n” offers a reflection on the representation of the taboos of sexuality in order to expose the clash of disgust and desire. |
w h e r e t h e w o o d b i n e t w i n e t h
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This project uses image and cut-up lines of found material, as well as hair and blood to create collages that are my initial attempts at creating a poetics of disgust. The start of this project was finding an article in Marie Claire magazine entitled ‘The Men Who Have Sex with Dolls’. I also found two 1960s science-fiction television programmes that seemed related: an episode of The Twilight Zone called ‘I Sing the Body Electric’ (a misappropriation of Walt Whitman’s poem of the same name), and an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour called ‘Where the Woodbine Twineth’, about a girl and a doll who become each other. In an attempt to created new relationships between the materials I took sections of text from all of these materials and cut them into strips. I created collages of text and images on Photoshop. I then ran the initial source materials through an online freeform permutation machine. I wanted to further fragment the permutated body of the text and create a language which at once reflected my source material and also used the language of technology to turn against itself. |
Enter w h e r e t h e w o o d b i n e t w i n e t h
Sophie Robinson was born in 1985. She has recently completed a BA in English Literature, and is starting an MA in Poetic Practice at Royal Holloway, University of London, in the autumn. Her poetry often deals with the complicated relationship between technology, culture and the female body. Sophie is the editor of OpennedVisual, a visual poetry magazine, and her poetry has appeared on the Openned website (http://www.openned.com) and in Hex Progress. She has also performed her work at The Foundry and at the Runnymede Literary Festival. Sophie's poetry blog can be found at http://www.sophierobinson.blogspot.com.