A Collaboration: Artwork by Ivilina Kouneva / Poetry by Jaclyn Piudik

What We See Is What We Love

Lightstains and blood threads                       phantom organs    love-stigmata
the hollows where connection occurs          a companion opera   denude
scars inscribed on our bodies                        craters into a skinscape of memory
                                           soften the curse of colour

The Curse of Colour 1

to desire outside the lines    a fairy-tale house
where bodily noises elongate tender moments
the girl    who didn’t know     the woman
who does    spaces to return to     that tell her how
to be bolstered in vertical strokes     interrogations
of touch     prayers     for rewilding reason

The Curse of Colour 2

our salvaged selves    pregnant with
      provinces    we are
                               borderless hues
      we resist
                               what rushes in
to square the curves    of our reach

Art Works by Ivilina Kouneva:

“What We See Is What We Love” (water based media, graphite, paper cuts on paper, 100×70 cm. (39.37×27.56 inch.), 2022
“The Curse of Colour 1” (acrylic and oil on painted canvas and paper cuts on paper, 48x 47 cm. ( 18.89 x 18.5 inch), 2023)
“The Curse of Colour 2” (acrylic and oil on painted canvas and paper cuts on paper, 48x 47 cm., 2023)

3 Works by Ivilina Kouneva and Jaclyn Piudik PDF Version:

Ivilina Kouneva is a widely exhibited visual artist originally from Gabrovo, Bulgaria, currently living in the south of England. For more information on her work and art practices visit her website: https://ivilinakouneva.com/.

Born in NYC, Jaclyn Piudik is a poet, translator and educator currently living in Toronto, Canada. Her work is widely published in journals and she is the author of numerous book projects, most recently, The Dark Oar, first English translations of Paul Celan’s own self-translated German poems into the French language (Beautiful Outlaw Press, 2024). More information on Jaclyn’s various projects is available here: https://www.jaclynpiudik.com/.