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Pie Chart Poems
Matthew Kay’s humorous pie- chart poems approach poetry in an unusual and novel way: by embedding it in a quantitative format that is typically alien to the emotional and visceral world of literature.
And to a wonderful effect!
When memories meet mathematics, the snippets of text adopt an entirely new layer of textural dimension- that of proportion. The temporally indicative clockwise reading of the sentences, the allocation of large chunks of the diagram to certain phrases, recollections and words, while others occupy merely a sliver; visually enforces the personal significance they bear in respect to the rest of the composition.
We can’t help but think of a statistician, suddenly overcome by a wave of nostalgia or passion, carefully recording his feelings into a analytically precise model created to endure the erosive distortions of memory over time.
(PS- Look out for more of Matthew’s poetry in our upcoming issues!)
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Matthew Kay lives and works in South West London.
Using an array of found, discarded materials and everyday imagery Matthew assembles sculptures, works on paper, books, songs and animations which map the territories between brokenness and wholeness, faith and superstition, mystery and certainty.
His sculptural practice is an ongoing (potentially hapless) attempt to encapsulate the transcendent everyday – the potential for any moment to have significance, to be a “holy moment.” This is manifest in an oeuvre which balances repetition and nothingness with purposeful action and creation. His interest in the idea of the making process as ritual or a meditative engagement with experience inspires the creation of visual poems which reference the mythological narratives, religious symbolism and sacred practices that we use daily to negotiate the uncomfortable process of living.
Read more of his poems here.
Buy his self published books here.