Swiss Embassy: What were the ideas, feelings or experiences that led to the creation of your poem?

Linn Molineaux: This poem is about queer awakening and visibility to oneself and theworld. As a visual artist I am fascinated by the idea of the unseen within an image, for it is very real and yet elusive. I wanted this short poem to reflect on this idea of something not yet within our reach and nonetheless already there. I believe a lot of the growth we experience washes over us that way, by surfacing, and our job is in a sense to try to welcome ourselves within our lives.

Typoetry’s theme is “Rethink – Rebuild”. How did this theme resonate with you?

"Rethink - Rebuild" evokes, to me, taking a pause and listening. Inside and out. I feel like we live in a time of a lot of noise, information and images, and it is confusing. Things are not truer because they are shouted. And it's not because it is a whisper that it isn't the truth. I believe we should collectively rethink how we listen and how we address issues, and centre this overwhelming noise on the humanity of people. Truth is often right there, if only we stop to listen to it. Radical softness, always.

Any thoughts on the final artwork, how your poem interacts with the design?

I think Sophie's work is brilliant. She managed to pass the intensity of the voice through her work on typo, conveying whispers and loudness through forms. I also love that it is blue, for it is my favourite colour. Blue holds contrasts - we say having the blues but when everything is fine, the sky is blue, blue is a cold colour but the warmest bit of the flame is blue, and soon. Besides, in nature it is a colour that isn't a surface but a sum of depth - as in the sky or the sea - and I find this idea of how vast and holding multitudes blue is, absolutely beautiful.

‍

Linn Molineaux (1993) is an artist, painter, author and poet who graduated from HEAD/University of Art and Design of Geneva. They work as the artistic director of the company Les Filoues since 2020 building up transdisciplinary projects and performances. Their latest manuscript was awarded two writing grants and their plastic work is exhibited regularly both in Switzerland and internationally. They write mostly in French. Learn more: Website | Instagram

Design by Sophie Wietlisbach, assistant at Master Type Design, ECAL/University of Art and Design of Lausanne. Learn more: ECAL MATD | ECAL MATD Instagram | Sophie Wietlisbach's website | Sophie Wietlisbach Instagram

‍

Typoetry is a showcase of poetry and Swiss graphic design. Around 30 poems from Newham, the UK and Switzerland are forming artistic trails in Newham from 20 May to 17 July 2022. Learn more.