Social distancing, Haiku and you, is a poetry project by the interdisciplinary artist Alan Nakagawa in collaboration with the Orange County Museum of Art.
In response to the challenges of being apart and trying to build a collaborative creative project that didn’t require a screen, Los Angeles based artist Alan Nakagawa asked the public to write and record haikus about their experiences during the pandemic.
A haiku is a form of poetry originally from Japan, consisting of three lines with five, seven and five syllables, respectively.
Photo by Alan Nakagawa.
Social distancing, Haiku and you ended up being a welcoming platform for people to explore their creativity amid the crisis, by turning their sentiments into a piece of writing and being part of a bigger initiative.
Examples of the poems submitted from the final inventory.
The museum received more than 550 poems from all over the globe. Nakagawa, who is also a sound artist, compiled the audio files and created a sound collage filled with a sense of the collective feelings and shared experiences caused by the pandemic. A single composition interweaving multiple voices.
Listen to the final piece below!