Primary Photos of Grandad and Babcia, compiling photos of their environment that could suggest a cause of their depression. I particularly focused on the photo of the Star Trek show that was on TV at the time when the photos were taken, alluding to the desire for escapism as Plath talks about being ‘blinded by such expressionless sirens’.
Illustrations of ‘the spirit of blackness’ and ‘stars open amongst lilies’ i.e. depression consuming the person, and the hope that death offers.
‘the spirit of blackness’ it is ‘in the fishes’ i.e. one being consumed by the metaphorical lake of depression, becoming dead and part of the ‘fishes’
The act of being ‘blinded’ by depression.
I decided to explore Slyvia Plath’s ‘Crossing the Water’, a visually metaphorical poem. Therefore, the nature of the power itself is ambiguous, thus, unexplained. The main theme of the poem is ‘blackness’, a metaphor for depression. Indeed, depression itself is unexplained, with no cure that works 100% and many unexplained causes.
In order to try and explain the unexplained, I researched into primary sources. Both my Dad and Grandma have depression, so I took primary photos into their lifestyle to try and work out an underlying theme/cause. I used these subjects, as inspiration for illustrations to try and explain the poem’s unexplained allusion to depression.
Furthermore, I researched into techniques that help sustainably deal with Plath’s ‘spirit of Blackness’, such as mindfulness, which prompted the visit to the Tibet Monk Exhibition at the Wellcome Collection.
Development into the project showed that explaining the poem through illustrations worked more effectively through ambiguous illustrations, emphasising its unexplained nature, which I compiled into a book. I even literally ‘black(ed)’ out the ‘black’ typography. The blacked out typography explained the ‘blackness’ by making it literal, however, it also made it ambiguous as one could not read it, thereby explaining the unexplained. I also muddled the text up so that it appeared unexplained, getting less muddled as the poem goes on. Indeed, at the back of the book I had the poem as full, therefore the book explained the unexplained.
