Abandon
By Nanette Wylde
Redwood City, California: PreNeo Press, 2004. Edition of 5.

5 x 7"; 30 pages. Pigment prints. Printed on Epson 2000P using Sanvito Font. Bound in boards with image tipped on front. Ribbon ties at spine. Text author unknown. Images and concept by Nanette Wilde. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Nanette Wylde: "Based on a poem I memorized in fifth grade. ... For most of my adult life I have been periodically haunted by a poem I memorized as a child. The text would run through my head for days on end and then I wouldn’t think of it at all for several years. In 2004, I decided to do something about this and created an art project around the poem, Abandon.

"The project consisted of three pairs of children’s sized chairs. Each pair was painted a different color — pink, blue, yellow. The pairs sat facing each other. On one chair was a framed portrait of a doll, approximately 14″ x 20″. The other chair contained headphones with a nine minute audio reading of the poem by a variety of voices. The gallery visitor sat on the chair with audio, listened to the poem while looking at the portrait across from her. This book was also a part of that larger installation."

For days of brief abandon will not come
when we are underground so let us yield
to the blood that battles in us like a drum
and find the breast of beauty in a field.

(SOLD)