COMMISSIONED POEM
Sugar J Give Invisible Kolo Touré is asked what he’d do if he were invisible for a day, he says “I’d rob a bank and give the money to poorer people.” There is so much we don’t understand about a man, we see everything and nothing at the same time like a page of writing written in a language we don’t read. Jean-Michel Basquiat paints Self Portrait (Plaid) in 1983. He colours himself featureless in all black, cream slit eyes floating on the faceless. Still from the outline you know it’s him you can tell, maybe it’s the hair. There is so much I don’t understand about a life, I see everything and nothing at the same time like a page of writing written in a language I don’t read. When Basquiat paints himself a shadow is he saying we’re all the same or is he trying (and failing) to give invisible?
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