Clarity Speaks of a Crystal Sea

Book excerpt: Poetry. "In Afton Wilky's CLARITY SPEAKS OF A CRYSTAL SEA, entire rooms of installation are captivated by book form. The pages hold out paper sculptures, words in compound trains and scatters, and juxtapositions of wrought and abandoned explanation, while the character Haada acts in story fragments that bring us closer in to this book's 'blinkers and the stammering whispers.' An incredible balance between openness—text in movement—and refinement—text brought to a pitch of expressive preparation—is part of what makes you feel you are in the room where it's happening. Hand- writing entries, cutting-room floor word piles, the thirsty water glasses, the photographed concertinas and text-braids: all these elements are paced to make the book a whole experience, air shifting through the brain and black ink at the heart. This is 'piling' at its excruciatingly breathing hinge, and it's beautiful."—Lisa Samuels