the poem that could not wait

CAConrad & Anna Mendelssohn

A publication put together to pair two of the most iconic and politically intelligent voices in poetry.

Since her death in 2009, Mendelssohn’s work has gained the interest of audiences through an increasing array of publication and exhibition contexts. CAConrad (they/them) has spent time among the University of Sussex’s archives that hold an extraordinary store of Mendelssohn’s distinctive drawn and hand written manuscripts. They have prepared nine of their own poems to be presented in what’s become their trademark larger-than-human display size. CAConrad has worked with curator-poet Iain Morrison to select work of Mendelssohn’s that resonates with the voice and form of their own work. This exhibition adopts CAConrad’s method of reproducing their poems in scaled spatial installations to similarly present and interpolate nine unpublished Mendelssohn poem-drawings.