citizen of Santiago
A policewoman in bright red lipstick peers from a photograph into an adjacent poem; a man buys a hat then strides out of one photograph and, after a brief appearance in an ode, carries on down a road bathed in late afternoon light… Between March and May 2013, photographer Bruce Foster
and poet Gregory O’Brien were temporary citizens of Santiago de Chile, staying in an apartment a short walk from the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, where their works were included in the ‘Kermadec–Art across the Pacific’ exhibition. Camera in hand, Foster walked the streets of this ambiguous yet curiously animated city, with its buskers, military parades, stray dogs and cascades of water from the cannons of armoured vehicles; O’Brien wrote poems, seated at Café Sur or the Mosqueto (with its Fernando Pessoa placemats), or on a bench in the Parque Forestal. Together they observed the life of street, park and busy intersection; they were drawn into the generous, abundant lives of their fellow citizens.
Published 2013 by:
Trapeze Books
96 Sefton Street
Wellington
New Zealand
