Magic and Metamorphosis: An Evening of Poetry at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
by Gillian Nevers
Jane Hammond, Untitled (221,181,275,156,227), 1991-1992, Oil on canvas, 76 x 70 inches. Private collection. © Jane Hammond. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York. From the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic, on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin, February 11 through May 13, 2012.
Jane Hammond, Untitled (193, 184, 141, 109), 1990, Oil on linen, 76 x 70 inches. Collection of Madeleine and David Lubar. © Jane Hammond. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York. From the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic, on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin, February 11 through May 13, 2012.
 Studio photograph of Houdini in white trunks and chains, c. 1905. Modern photograph. 5½ x 4 inches. Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts. From the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic, on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin, February 11 through May 13, 2012. |
 The Houdinis, Introducing the Only and Original Metamorphosis, Change in 3 Seconds!, 1895. Lithograph, 31 x 22 inches. Collection of Ken Trombly, Bethesda, Maryland. Photo by Dean A. Beasom. From the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic, on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin, February 11 through May 13, 2012. |
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A blown-up photograph of Harry Houdini, wearing only boxer shorts with limbs and trunk shackled and padlocked, presided over Magic and Metamorphosis: An Evening of Poetry held May 4 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA). Working in response to the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic, fifteen members of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP) read their original works based on the life and legend of Wisconsin’s most renowned magician and escape artist.
Featured readers shared their original poems about the mystery and theatrics of Houdini. Whether inspired by a particular work of art or by larger themes within the exhibition, their poems offered new ways to consider Houdini and his continuing cultural influence. The program also included a performance by Karl Elder of his chapbook-length poem, The Houdini Monologues. Rob Pockat read his introductory essay to the sequence of poems, and cellist Elizabeth Zerger accompanied Elder.
Magic and Metamorphosis: An Evening of Poetry was the most recent collaboration between MMoCA and the WFOP. Sheri Castelnuovo, MMoCA’s curator of education organized the evening. She was assisted by Gillian Nevers, WFOP membership chair and docent emeritus at MMoCA. The long and meaningful partnership that brings poetry together with museum exhibitions has recently expanded to include Verse Wisconsin. Creating synergies among artist communities is the purpose of these ongoing collaborative events.
Houdini with the milk can, c. 1908. Photograph, 3½ x 4¼ inches. Courtesy of Fantasma Magic Shop, New York, www.fantasmamagic.com. Photo by Bill Orcutt. From the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic, on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin, February 11 through May 13, 2012.
