I Sing the Spirit Fantastic
I Sing the Spirit Fantastic, Ackroyd & Harvey, with Sir Ben Okri
Ackroyd & Harvey have grown Ben Okri’s visionary poetry into living skins of seedling grass, in two large scale artworks. Displayed in a dried state, excerpts from the poem I Sing the Spirit Fantastic present the climate crisis as - in part - a crisis of the imagination. The poem speaks to the transformative power of nature; to the wind, the tides and the sun that could transform our energy systems as well as inspire new ways of living in relation to the natural world.
A fuller version of the poem can be read on a limited edition postcard, and below.
BSL interpretation for this artwork is available via this link
Ackroyd & Harvey are internationally acclaimed for creating works that intersect art, activism, architecture, biology, ecology and history. They are founding members of Culture Declares Emergency, a network of arts practitioners advocating for climate justice, sharing knowledge and expertise to work towards regenerative change. For Okri, environmental activism is an aspect of his art, poetry and life. They have received international awards and prizes for their bio-chemical photographic work and have been widely commissioned for monumental interventions in the public realm
Sir Ben Okri is a poet, playwright and novelist. He has published eleven novels, five books of short stories, two collections of essays, and five volumes of poems. He has invented a new form of storytelling called the " Stoku", which is a cross between the short story and the haiku. His works have been translated into 27 languages. He has been a Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Ben Okri's books have won numerous international Prizes including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize, and the Premio Grinzane Cavour Prize.
I SING THE SPIRIT FANTASTIC
AND I SAID TO THE EARTH,
BE STILL.
YIELD UP NO MORE
DEAD FORCE.
AND I SAID TO
THE WIND,
TURN THE TURBINES
AND TO THE TIDES,
SPEED UP THE WHEELS
AND I SAID TO THE SUN
THAT SPREADS
ITS GOLD
OVER THE VAST UNUSED
DESERTS
BURN AWAY OUR
ILLUSIONS,
UNLEASH
THE INNOCENT
IMAGINATION THAT WE
MAY DRAW PARADISE
CLOSER.
WITH THE WORK OF OUR HANDS
AND THE NEW CENTURY
OF OUR INVENTIONS.
AND I SAID TO
OUR GARDENS,
SPREAD FLOWERS OVER
THE RICH DEADLANDS OF OUR DRIED THOUGHTS,
SEND THE FRAGRANCE
OF MEADOWS THROUGH
THE SLEEP
OF OUR CHILDREN
AND TEACH
OUR LEADERS TO
WILL CALM
SPLENDOURS,
BETTER REALITIES.
I SING THE SPIRIT FANTASTIC
I SING A NEW DAWN
OF BRIGHT
FRESH ENERGY