Manifesto for urban crofts
- Artist:
- Type: Print
- Medium: Risograph
- Production Date:
- Period:
- 2020s
- Description: A series of twenty posters, the first one reading:
'A revolutionary plot for every park = urban croft'
Around the turn of the millenium, the artist Alec Finlay began a project involving Renga. This is an ancient Japanese form of writing poems composed of linked verses, written communally. Finlay developed a wooden Japanese style platform and began to invite diverse groups of people to come and sit in the open, developing poetry together.
Finlay explains: 'A completed poem consists of twenty verses. At each round all of the participants are invited to write and read aloud their verse offering. The master poet is always an experienced haiku writer and poetry workshop leader. They are responsible for selecting the verse that best continues the poem. People can enter and leave the event throughout the day, and they are free to watch, until they feel ready to join in. A renga always begins with a seasonal verse responding to the day of its composition; and then passes through all of the other seasons'.
During the pandemic Finlay became interested in the importance of green spaces. He sat and wrote near people growing, enjoying the social space. He wanted to give people agency and a sense of belonging. And to emphasise that 'you don't have to own a place to improve it'.
This manifesto is one of several that he developed at that time. - Dimensions: 30cm H x 21cm w (ie A4)
- Digital Copy:A digital copy exists.
- Location: Store
- Related Material: AC/AF/F/6
- Accession Number: 2024.22
- Contact: University of Stirling Art Collection
