Bridges have been writ large in my year, thanks to writers’ organisation 26.
I’ve been artist partner to writer Jonathan Holt for 26 Bridges and invited to take part in 26 Twinned Bridges, a different kind of project pairing writers in the UK and New Zealand, each writing a centena (100 words beginning and ending with the same three) about a bridge of their choice, sharing ideas, then writing a piece of reflection.
Coming from the visual end of things, my piece started with a sketch I had done of the community spectacle that is a bridge roll at East London art, heritage and ecology site Cody Dock, on the River Lea. In this illustration I’ve layered sketches from different events, in the foreground a scene I noticed of delighted humans – and an unimpressed whippet facing the other way.
I was twinned with film producer Claris Harvey, whose poignant piece about a bridge builder in Auckland has an entirely different rhythm and mood.
And yet, when we reflected on our centenas and the stories behind them, we found a strong common theme.
The project has launched on Substack with our work – subscribe to follow all of the twinned bridges as they are published daily through to 13 December.
Bonus nerdery: I looked up where the edible bridge roll got its name. One story is that it was invented to enable bridge players to eat without interrupting the game; in the other, it’s to do with the baking, the rolls packed closely in their baking trays, joining together with bridges of dough.
