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Full Moon
3 Mar 2026
Fokkina
McDonnell
Canada is as far away
as bibles are
After The Avid Reader (1949)
by Rodney Graham
For The Avid Reader
Rodney Graham has recreated
an empty Woolworth’s
in his Vancouver studio,
plastered old newspapers
over all its windows.
He’s set the scene in 1949
and his wife, swing coat, high heels,
walks past on the right.
We see the middle-aged man
carrying a hat, smoking a pipe,
because Graham inhabits him.
All artists are obsessives:
these giant light boxes,
demanding our devotion.
Behind the poem...
A visit to Voorlinden in the Netherlands introduced me to That’s not me – the first solo exhibition of Rodney Graham’s work in the country. I was fascinated by the monumental lightboxes framing backlit colour photos, in which Graham adopts various roles and disguises. Some of these are historical, others are based on his observations of life in Vancouver. Graham explores issues of identity with humour and wit. He is also a painter and musician. The Avid Reader, my inspiration for this poem, is set in 1949, the year Graham was born.