If you’ve been thinking that arty bard Gregory O’Brien has been a bit quiet lately, think again. We’ve just had notice of a most exceptional event happening in Wellington next Monday evening, 6.00pm at the Bowen Galleries, 35 Ghuznee St. Well, it’s two events really, but neither of them would be happening without a certain Mr O’Brien.

The first event is Lunar & Arthur, the first exhibition of Greg’s work ‘since about 1997’. His art consists of his poetry that’s been hand lettered and cut out in a labelly, mappy, cartoony kind of way, and accompanied by little line drawings. Makes me think of both Richard Killeen and… well, Tin Tin for some reason. The effect is instantly attractive and charming, but when you look, and read, closer, there's a fair bit of cerebral activity necessary. The colours he sometimes uses are a big part of the charm for me – peaty brown and weathered sea-spray turquoise, gorgeous. I want one. That one.

The second event, same time, same place, is Beausoleil – the launch of Doris de Pont’s new winter range of clothes. Doris is an Auckland fashion designer (of Dutch descent – more about that later) who, each year, chooses a NZ artist to base her collection around. It's all about her exploration of her place in NZ, and the place of NZ in the world. This year, her creative compass pointed to Greg. She’s printed his poems on to various gorgeous fabrics and she’s made clothes out of it. Clothes that she thinks a ‘very stylish Japanese librarian’ might wear, and extending this metaphor, each garment has been named using a mock Dewey Decimal Classification. Cute.

On the invitation, Doris says, ‘The fun part of this collection is when you cut the fabric into garments it breaks up the words and creates unpredicted meanings. The letters are both decorative images and meaningful symbiosis. It is quite fascinating.’ Greg agrees: 'I like the idea of someone walking around inside a poem. Maybe these garments could be called ‘kinetic poems’ making their way through the world, and changing all the time, depending on who is wearing them, what they are doing and on the conditions around them: shadow, wind, weather…

But that’s not all. As well as all this clever loveliness, there will be food, wine, and even a performance at 6.30 for which, Greg said, ‘students from Toi Whakaare the National Drama School will be 'modelling' the clothes and, I believe, reading from / interpreting / possibly even singing the poems.’

Now for the aforementioned Dutch connection (I’ve been wondering how I’m going to wrap this up and still manage to get a poem in here but I think I’m going to make it). Last Friday, right, there was a workshop of Dutch/English poetry in Wellington. Our Doris has spent a large part of her life in Holland, and in fact her clothes are also sold there. So… she uses Greg’s poetry on her clothes, but also has some of them translated into Dutch by Jan Lauwereyns, Vic Uni’s resident Dutch neuroscientist/poet. And on the criss-cross fabric in these pix, for example, which uses the poem House and Children (from Winter I Was), the horizontal words are from the English original, in Greg’s handwriting and the vertical words are Jan Lauwereyn's Dutch translation of the same poem, rendered by Doris. As Greg said today, ‘it's a double translation: poetry translated into fashion, English translated into Dutch. Fragmented, but making complete sense!’

And on that note I’d like to wrap this up with a delightfully esoteric poem (ha! did it) by Dutch writer Anne Vegter translated from into English at the aforementioned workshop by the aforementioned Jan Lauwereyns and Gregory O’Brien.

Beneath the veritable heavens

wards and onwards. The city slumped, jabbering. For desperation none, he said, or just one.
First make victims. Some think that simple, but I mean real ones.

Right. On with your day, head reeling, hopefully.