A new poem on the Tadao Ando Gallery in the Art Institute of Chicago to accompany my ongoing "Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion series"...

Installation No. 16

jomon jars replaced by plastic
mannequins, wanting definition
vacant body forms, scaffolding

to bear the float of haute
couture, Japanese fashion
Rei Kawakubo’s slip:

“lumps & bumps” – a garment
of transposable parts, butt pads
shift to chest or hips

bee-stung knees, or a weight-
lifter’s muscular back; shoulders
like Tilda Swinton

the site-specific video install
lights up Ando’s towers like
a fashion expo, visitors

careening down a catwalk
of columns, the space between
pillars, a stage for self-portraits

in silhouette, geometric slants
echo frames of denuded
posts, a scroll of light

unfurled against a wall
the artist’s projection
a measured pattern

of movable parts