Ouyang Yu
Leaf poems 2020

Exhibition date: 31/7/22 —31/8/22
Location: correspondences, 39 Sydney Road Brunswick VIC 3056

 

On Sunday, 31 July 2022, acclaimed poet, writer, and editor Ouyang Yu opened his leaf poem exhibit in connection with our Bookclub Conversation event

The hanging exhibit presents a random selection of his 'leaf poems', written during his daily walks in Bundoora Park during the Victoria-wide COVID-19 lockdown. The remaining leaf poems Ouyang wrote during this time are scattered along the table below.

The poems are bilingual, sometimes written in Chinese, sometimes in English and sometimes in both languages.

If Chinese isn't your mother tongue, you can use Google Translate to delve deeper. Or, scan the QR code of the nearby interpretive text to find a translation for the hanging exhibit. 

Alternatively, you can leave the mystery of the language of the leaves undiscovered and instead focus on the beauty of their leaf forms. 

You will also find a pen and a box of leaves with two blank sides on the table. We encourage you to leave a poem with us - in one, two or more languages if you prefer!

Alongside the leaves, there are a range of Ouyang's titles - books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and prose - offered for sale for a limited time. 

The selection includes his series of 'rejected works', self-published in 2020 as limited editions of one, namely: West of the River, Spring Waters: Li Yu, the Emperor of Poetry and Small Says: Words, Stories and Mini-Meditations, which are offered for silent auction. 

Bids from private individuals and publishers can be submitted privately via the button below. Please select your preferred title and nominate whether your bid is for the book or the book and corresponding rights to publish the second edition of the title. 

The other titles, priced as marked, include The Kingsbury Tales: A Complete Collection, 2012; The Kingsbury Tales, 2008; and, After the Rush: Regulation, Participation and Chinese Communities in Australia 1860-1940, 2004, to name but a few. Come in to find out more!

To read an earlier long-form interview with Ouyang, which further explores the single-edition concept and much more besides, head here