And You, Helen

'And You, Helen' was a collaborative project between Charlotte Hodes and poet and researcher Deryn Rees-Jones, (Professor of Poetry, University of Liverpool) commissioned by and for the Ledbury Poetry Festival, supported by Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The theme of the project was Edward Thomas’s poem ‘And You, Helen’ written a year to the day before he died in World War 1 in 1917, to his wife Helen. This provided a starting point for Rees-Jones’ poetic re-imagining of Helen. Hodes in turn responded to Rees-Jones' 12 part poem in a series of new papercuts, applying her drawing and collage methodology to create an animation made in collaboration with Kristina Pulejkova (Central Saint Martins MA graduate). This was screened live alongside two performances of the poem, read by actor Juliet Stevenson at Ledbury Poetry Festival. One of the performances included a panel discussion about the collaboration with a cabinet display of the papercuts and preparatory drawings. The poem and essay by Rees-Jones accompanied by the papercuts were published by Seren in two formats (hardback and deluxe limited editions: ISBN 978-1-78172-172-8 & ISBN 978-1-78172-218-3). A second version of the animation was produced with the poem spoken by Rees-Jones for subsequent screenings. Papercuts were displayed alongside the book and film at jaggedart, London (3 - 24 December 2014) and two paper cuts were on loaned at the Edward Thomas Study Centre. Petersfield, 2017. The project was presented at the 2017 conference 'Edward Thomas', Artois University, France with a group of prints from the papercuts displayed in their library exhibition.