Planet Box

About

Planet Box is a collaboration that re-configures our idea of the poetry book. More than just a sequence of poems drawing us into the imaginary life of its speaker, this 'box' contains an entire life's work - the secret hoardings and outpourings of a woman squaring up to the dark matter of her own imagination, a character who paints her past against the canvas of the cosmos, and who blocks out the everyday to create a pinhole camera of her own isolation.

Planet Box is the culmination of a three-year partnership between two acclaimed artists from diametrically opposing fields, poetry (Diana Syder) and conceptual art (Laura Daly), brought together for a science-art residency project in West Yorkshire.

Press

‘She considerably frees and expands the scale of the poetry. There’s a persistent understated virtuosity in the way she accommodates this breadth without ever straining her conversational tone. “You cannot have literature without curiosity!” said Pound. Syder has abundant curiosity: spacious, intelligent, and sociable.’
– Roy Fisher

‘Here is an English poet who is amazed by the world and wants to tell you how amazed she is.’
– Jim Burns