berni m janssen
berni m janssen is a text artist who works with words in all their forms, printed, spoken, performed. She has a collaborative multidisciplinary practice spanning over thirty-five years, working with composers, performers, visual artists and community members to make word inspired art. She is renowned for her evocative and captivating performances.
The passion began with poems, and poems in books: Possessives and Plurals (Fillia Press. 1985); Xstatic (Post Neo. 1988); mangon (Mercurial Editions. 1992) and Lake & Vale (PressPress. 2010). Poems have been published in magazines including Cordite, Heat, Meanjin, Overland, Extra and performed on radio and at festivals around the world.
berni m janssen
between wind and water, is to be in a vulnerable place, the place where people and planet are. When industrial wind arrives in the neighbourhood, some locals find that living with their new neighbour has brought a whirlwind of troubles. Their health and that of the community take a nosedive. Their complaints are filed into obscurity, their stories dismissed and they belittled. What sort of world do we want? We ask how can we have a better world if people and planet are not equally respected?
These poems speak the stories of people who have been denied a voice. A local story told with a global perspective … these are small fragments of a very complex story, an attempt to distil the experiences of some people in small rural locations across the world.
At the heart of between wind and water is an intimate portrayal of the vulnerable place people and planet find themselves. When home no longer feels safe as houses, when health has so deteriorated, and the local community divided and toxic, people leave their homes and the lives they have known.
between wind and water, a series of poems, tells the stories of people who, after a windfarm is built in their neighbourhood, find that they begin to experience problems: among others sleep disruption, headaches, nausea, anxiety. They complain to the Company, local council, and government. Lost in the labyrinth of doublespeak and duplicity, anxiety, disillusionment and a sense of abandonment grow. These poems tell of their experience and try to make sense of what is happening.
The broader ideological framework that these stories are set in: the earth is being plundered; consumerism is rife; bias and zealotry on all sides are rampant. Who do you believe? Where do we go from here, when respect for people and the planet is at such a low ebb?
2018 | ISBN 9781925581591 | Paperback | 230 x 190 mm | 96 pp