Drum roll please! We are very happy to announce our Newham Word Festival Artist for 2019 is Sana Amos.
We will be installing an exhibition by Newham based artist Sana Amos in Canning Town Library as part of Newham Word Festival which runs from February – March 2019.
Inspired by the work of Austin Kleon, Sana uses pages from all sort of paper based media to create poems by blacking out text and highlighting words that resonate with her to form unique geometric artworks.
The exhibition will be open to visitors to the library from Monday 18th February to Sunday 31st March 2019.
To celebrate the festival and the artworks on display we will be hosting two FREE creative workshops at Canning Town Library and Rosetta Arts. Join us and explore the power of words art and imagination.
Sanaa Amos talked to us about her art practice:
“I use a creative method called ‘erasure’ or ‘blackout poetry’. I use pre-existing media, anything from books, newspapers and leaflets, turning them into new stories adding visual aspect of geometric designs as well as colour and drawings. All my work is hand made. In time of fast consumption, I recycle and reuse words for my art. Instead of an empty page to fill, full pages are cleared of what I don’t want. It’s an art form called blackout poetry described as ‘like if the CIA did haiku’.
I started doing blackout poetry in 2015 when an illness meant I became housebound. I came across Austin Kleon’s blog and book where he used newspapers articles only to do blackout poetry. I got myself a book from charity shop and a black marker and was instantly hooked. Since then I have developed a geometric style using only a sharpie and a ruler.
It is a great way to breaking out of any creativity block, letting the subconscious do the quick work and creating art of the page as you go long.”
You can follow Sana’s creations on her Instagram page.
