Art inspiring art: what is ekphrasis?

Poet and artist Rachel Carney was commissioned by Shape as part of the 2024 Adam Reynolds Award shortlist programme to create a new moving image work. The film - 'Fragments of Us' - premieres on October 30 at g39, Cardiff, supported by Image Works and will be available online after the event. 

In this blog, Rachel introduces us to the concept of ekphrasis, exploring how this creative practice underpins her latest work and what it might offer audiences and artists alike in their own relationships with art of all kinds.

Read Rachel's artist profile What is the ARA shortlist programme?

What is ekphrasis?

Ekphrasis was originally a form of speech used in Ancient Greek rhetoric. An orator would use ekphrasis to engage their audience, describing scenes and situations in such a way as to stir up the imagination of those who were listening.

The term ‘ekphrasis’ developed over time, until it became known as a poetic description of visual art.

But that definition has since expanded to include any kind of creative response to any work of art. And the most interesting ekphrastic texts do far more than just ‘describe’. 

Now, ekphrasis could refer to a poem written in response to a painting. But it could also refer to a painting painted in response to a film, or a sculpture shaped in response to a dance.

Ekphrasis can be a playful, ironic, or subversive process of engagement. It can be a conversation between writer and reader and viewer and artist. 

It can also pull you into the conversation. You may become inspired to create your own response: to challenge or provoke, to connect, to criticise or question.

It can create a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves, such as the silent figures in a painting, an imagined viewer, a deceased artist, or even the artwork itself.

Examples of my ekphrastic poetry

Diving into Paint

after Degas, or Cézanne, or Water, Perhaps


We try to break through the solid frame of everything –

to drag the tension in, sink down beneath the surface

of the water, of the world,

 

but it is only when we pull the other figure in –

the jilted lover, or the viewer, or the man

who knocks without warning at the bathroom door,

 

and hold our breath, hold every speculation out

for anyone to see, to read with us, to sweat, thud,

tingle, splash, and then lie back again…

 

for that moment when rivers grow to lovers,

or brothers, and some of us jump in,

while others stand there, dripping, on the shore.



(Originally published in the 2022 AUB Poetry Prize anthology)

‘Diving into Paint’ was inspired by two artworks: Woman at the Bath by Edgar Degas, and The Diver by Paul Cézanne (below). It was also inspired by a conversation between several writers taking part in a creative writing workshop. Their words are presented in italics. 

Woman at the Bath by Edgar Degas and The Diver by Paul Cézanne, ©Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Impressions

after J.M.W. Turner





                                    just       the suggestion

 

of a painting     or a view

 

           that isn’t there              in the grey illusion

 

                        of a water stain              a woman

 

           or a ship                           (its translucent sails unfurled

                                                              a century ago or more)              

 

           crusted up with tears

 

that do not fall                           or the suggestion of relief

 

           of not knowing     what comes next

 

or what this yellow means                      or if the sea

 

           you think you see     is really there

 

                         at all

  

(Originally published in Octopus Mind)

‘Impressions’ was inspired by The Morning after the Wreck by J.M.W. Turner. It was also inspired by a conversation between several writers taking part in a creative writing workshop. 

The Morning after the Wreck by J.M.W. Turner. ©Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Unremarkable

after Gwen John



A woman paints a corner of an attic room, the window closed and veiled against the heat.

 

A woman paints a small, secluded corner of herself – an open book upon the table, open window, open, slanted light. It orients her West, towards the sun.

 

A woman paints a corner of her mind, a half-open window, to let the sunlight in. She paints the scent of a boulangerie, drifting from below.

 

A woman paints the table in again, removes the book, removes all traces of herself, begins, again, with spring blossoms and a parasol.

 

A woman paints because she can, because the universe allows her to.

 

A woman paints the soft stripe of shadows on the sloping wall, like bars on a window. She dips her brush, begins again.

 

A woman is still painting, in a corner of a room, in Paris, in London, Madrid, in a small unremarkable corner, in a house, a flat, a garden, a studio.

 

A woman paints a newer version of herself. This one is polished, yellow, flat, serene.

 

A woman paints her way from rue du Cherche-Midi to rue du Cherche-Midi. But what awaits her there? Another slant of yellow sunlight in a corner of the room?

 

A woman paints, a woman writes. A hundred years pass. Another thirteen years. And here is another corner of another yellow room.



 (Originally published in Octopus Mind)

‘Unremarkable’ was inspired by two almost identical paintings by Gwen John, both titled A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris. You can read more about the writing process on the Poetry Wales website.

A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris by Gwen John. ©Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

You can read several other ekphrastic poems written by workshop participants in response to each of these artworks, shared as part of the Art & Words project in 2021. 

Famous ekphrasis

‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ by W. H. Auden

  • written in response to Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

‘Not My Best Side’ by U.A. Fanthorpe

  • written in response to St George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello 

‘Standing Female Nude’ by Carol Ann Duffy

  • written in response to Bather by Georges Braque

My research

My PhD research involved writing poems in response to visual art (ekphrasis) while also investigating how this process could be used as a tool for visitor engagement in museums. As part of this research, I organised an interactive poetry display at National Museum Cardiff in 2022 where, over a period of nine weeks, more than 1500 people contributed, writing or drawing on postcards in 18 different languages or arranging and re-arranging words into poetic texts.

I analysed these poems and other texts as part of my research, but I also felt it was important to use my own creative methods to properly reflect the audience responses. So, I produced a set of 'meta-ekphrastic' poems, incorporating and responding to the creativity of the museum visitors. 'Meta-ekphrastic' means I was creatively responding to the creative responses of others to a work of art - multiple layers of ekphrasis!

My new film Fragments of Us came out of this work and the dialogues and collaborations the work led to. I wanted not only to extend the conversation started in the museum, but allow for it to become an ongoing ekphrastic conversation. I was inspired by a whole range of different ideas, but the main focus was one of interaction, dialogue and connection, represented by the repetition of plural pronouns ‘we’ and ‘our’, which are taken directly from the museum visitors’ texts.

The process was not an easy one. This was the first time I had worked with a filmmaker, and it took some time to decide how the filming would work, and to find a suitable location. Although the filming process was chronological (focused on the construction of a giant web made out of wool) I wanted the film itself to emphasise the ‘process’ of construction. This was never about creating a finished product. I wanted to create a film that is open enough to spark further ideas and conversations.

Fragments of Us will premiere at G39, Cardiff on 30 October 2025. You can register now for free tickets. After the event, Rachel's new film will be made available online.

Rachel Carney is a poet, creative writing tutor and artist, based in Cardiff. Her debut poetry collection Octopus Mind (Seren Books) explores themes of perception, creativity, and neurodiversity, and was selected as one of The Guardian’s Best Poetry Books of 2023.

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