INSPIRING KENT

The part Kent played in inspiring one of the 20th century’s most important literary works is to be celebrated in a major new exhibition coming to Margate’s Turner Contemporary. Angela Cole takes a closer look

It is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry.

But did you know that TS Eliot worked on his poem, The Waste Land, sitting in a shelter on Margate sands? The part Kent’s coastal landscape played in his creation is celebrated in the town where it happened from this weekend with Turner Contemporary’s latest major exhibition, Journeys with The Waste Land.

Exploring TS Eliot’s 1922 poem The Waste Land through the visual arts, it will feature more than 60 artists, and almost 100 objects, and explore how contemporary and historical art can enable us to reflect on the poem’s shifting flow of diverse voices, references, characters and places.

It was in 1921 that Eliot spent a few weeks in Margate at a crucial moment in his career. He arrived in a fragile state, both physically and mentally, and worked on it, sitting in the Nayland Rock Shelter on Margate sands. He wrote to a friend: “I have done a rough draft of part of Part III but do not know whether it will do... I have done this while sitting in a shelter on the front –as I am out allday except when taking rest.” (Letter, 1921 –22, © Estate of TS Eliot). Writing shortly after the First World War, the world beyond Eliot was also fragile. But out of this, a new generation of writers, artists and musicians emerged.

Eliot’s poem quickly became seen as one of the most important works of the century and its techniques and images continue to be significant. The new exhibition includes the works by artists alongside historic pieces, contemporary works and new commissions. Artworks range from Edward Hopper’s painting Night Windows(1928) which echoes the mood of the poem, to responses by international artists, such as this year’s winner of Norway’s national award for contemporary art, Vibeke Tandberg, whose installation The Waste Land (2007) breaks down and re-orders the poem.

There will also be new works specially commissioned, such as John Newling’s sculpture Eliot’s Notebooks (2017), a nine-month project to transform hundreds of copies of The Waste Land into soil, and then back into paper.

‘On Margate Sands. I can connect Nothing with nothing.’ TS Eliot, The Waste Land

Picture: Thanet District Council The view from Nayland Rock shelter

Lines Made By Walking (2003), by Carey Young

Poet TS Eliot and right the Turner Contemporary in Margate