Words and pictures make for an inspired lunch date with Pascale Petit

19th October

Where could be a more appropriate setting to host the event Poems After Frida Kahlo than Manchester Art Gallery; home to some of the painter’s work during last year’s controversial Surrealist show Angels Of Anarchy. Practically all the seats have been filled by the time I arrive just before the 1pm start; everyone is obviously very eager to hear Pascale Petit read from her new collection, What The Water Gave Me (shortlisted two days later for the TS Eliot Prize For Poetry).

Originally envisaged as a pamphlet, the project snowballed and the resulting book encompasses 52 poems, all “spoken” in the Mexican artist’s voice and all taking the title of a Kahlo work (some paintings have more than one poem, hence 1, 2, 3 and so on). Petit, when asked during the Q&A session at the end why she embarked on such an undertaking, explains that while she was studying for an MA in sculpture, her tutor drew similarities between her studio and Kahlo’s famous Blue House (La Casa Azul) in Coyoacán. Petit also feels drawn to her fragile yet powerful character, and is obviously intrigued by her tragedy-stricken early years and somewhat eccentric adult life, right down to her crazy cremation.

Petit’s eyes are alive as she admits how jealous she is of Kahlo’s menagerie, which included a deer, a goat, parrots and the spider monkeys that put in an appearance in Self-portrait With Four Monkeys. “There are so many anguished paintings,” says Petit, “but this is a happy one, I’ve decided.” The language contained within the accompanying poem underlines this: one line describes the monkeys picking up tubes of paint of the “juiciest colours” with their tails; another ends “Release the flames of the bird of paradise flower”.

The naturalistic imagery is immense (“candelabra cacti” a particular example that sticks in my mind), as is the use of colour to conjure up both emotion (“white pain”) and setting: “watermelon greens, chilli reds, pumpkin orange” sum up the Mexican landscape perfectly. It’s obvious the material world had a huge effect on Kahlo, and this is emphasised by Petit reciting her poems with the related painting looming large on the screen behind her. The Broken Column shows Kahlo’s body reflecting the cracks in the lava field desert, near where she lived south of Mexico City, and this, in turn, is reflected in the physical words chosen for Petit’s accompanying piece.

By the end, I’ve lost track of how many poems we’ve heard and how many paintings we’ve seen, but I’ve learnt a lot about the life and loves of Frida Kahlo and I’m struck by how personable the talented Pascale Petit is. She is as much inspiring as she was herself inspired.

by Sarah-Clare Conlon

Sarah-Clare is a freelance writer, editor and press officer. She is the co-creator of Ask Ben & Clare, author of the award-winning Words & Fixtures, and regular contributor to Manchester Blog Awards 2010 Best New Blog 330 Words.

Pascale Petit: inspiration, writer's block and cloning

Ahead of Pascale Petit's event at The Manchester Art Gallery on 19th October, we asked her a few questions about influences, inspirations and alternative careers. Here are her answers:

MLF: What are you reading at the moment?

PP: Gauguin’s Letters from the South Seas and Handbook of Polynesian Mythology (I’m about to work in the Gauguin exhibition at Tate Modern teaching my Poetry from Art class), María Sabina edited by Jerome Rothenberg, Eduardo El Curandero: The Words of a Peruvian Healer, and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

MLF: What made you want to be a writer? Who/ what is your biggest inspiration?

PP: Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. I first heard this read out by the teacher at school when I was fifteen and it spoke to me. It was the deepest, saddest and most mystical thing I‘d heard. I knew then I wanted to write poetry.

MLF: If you could meet any writer, artist, musician (alive or dead) who would it be and why?

PP: I’d like to meet Fray Cesáreo de Armellada, a Venezuelan monk (1908–1996) who lived with the Pemón tribe of Venezuela’s Lost World and compiled a Spanish/Pemón dictionary. He also wrote transcripts of their myths and chants. I have a longstanding obsession with the otherworldly table mountains of that area and the Pemón know them intimately. He lived with them for many years and I’d loved to be able to talk to him about their culture and relationship with that landscape.

MLF: What would you be if not a writer?

PP: A visual artist. I was a sculptor for the first part of my life and trained in fine arts, but gave that up to concentrate on writing. If I could clone myself and have double the time and energy I’d do both.

MLF: Do you ever get writer's block? If you do, how do you get over it?

PP: Yes I do. I read poems that excite me and search for new discoveries, including poets in translation, or I go to exhibitions, or I travel, sometimes somewhere remote. I read non-fiction books and may get ideas from these – books about all kinds of passions of mine that can lead to poems, lots on myths, natural history, artists, ethnography. I also try to tell myself that it isn’t a block but a transition and hopefully poems or even new directions are gestating.

MLF: Which piece of your own work are you most proud of?

PP: That’s hard to answer because I’m never satisfied with my work. I guess though that my own favourite books are The Zoo Father and What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo.

MLF: What do you see in your future?

PP: I’m working on my first novel and hope to finish it next year. I also want to write short stories. As for poems, I’ve no idea what comes next now that I can no longer write in Frida Kahlo’s voice! Maybe something will grow out of my novel and the research for that. There is a lot of material floating around in my head.

MLF: What are you looking forward to most at MLF?

PP: I’m really looking forward to reading at Manchester Art Gallery. I visited the Angels of Anarchy exhibition there recently and adored it and the gallery space. I wish I could stay for other MLF events, but have to go there and back in one day from London as I’ve a lot of travel for readings that week.

Don't miss Pascale read from her poerty collection What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo tomorrow (19th October) at Manchester Art Gallery. Find out more/book tickets here.