For the portfolio of images project I need to construct a minimum of ten images which must be printed and compiled in the form of a ‘book’. The images must portray my personal point of view on the subject/theme of the chosen text. The text I have chosen to work on is The Wasteland by T.S Elliot.

Before I can start creating my ten images for The Wasteland I need to read through it and create some notes about each part of the poem – these notes will influence the final outcome of my images.

Part 0ne – Burial of the Dead

Is describing April as a cruel month, neither living or dead. The speaker (Marie) is re-telling the first meeting she had with her lover. The first stanza shows romantic memories at first and then horrifying imagery which continues in the rest of the poem.

Told from the soldier’s point of view – maybe Marie’s lover? He is passing through a destroyed city, buildings and churches. It shows he’s lonely and his shadow follows him around but is obscured by man made objects. ‘I will show you fear in a handful of dust’. The land is barron and debris is scattered after the war, he remembers being in the garden (Colonnade). He couldn’t show his feelings until he has thought about it now – when he has time.

Somewhere else a woman has gone to seek out what has happened to her lover in the war. The card is a drowned sailor where the eyes we’re pearls signifying that many have died a while ago. A lot of women have come to see about their loved ones.

Describing London through the eyes of a soldiers wife, exhausted and confused she follows the crowd into the city. She passes a church and heard the death toll.

Part two – A Game of Chess

The author references to Cleopatra and her first encounter with Anthony. The woman in the stanza is in a wealthy environment but is lonely and frustrated. She places a contrast of her emotional world of darkness, boredom and isolation. She was raped by her sisters husband ‘Barbaric King’ and is being persuaded by him, she is incapable of escaping, trapped in her mind and body.

Here are two parties expressing their inability to portray their feelings. ‘I never know what you are thinking’ She cant deal with the silence of her partner. The war is haunting this participant.
She is bored of being in the house with nothing to do (like the rich woman) She may be disloyal to her partner due to his lack of presence. He however is so far away and absent minded that he uses an illusion of playing chess – play the field – move on.

The two women are in discussion at a bar and one is on about getting her teeth fixed for her man so she is nice for her husband when he gets back. She is on pills preventing her from having anymore children but looks old due to them. The ironic message in the scene is that she is fertile but her body looks old and withering away – like a wasteland.

Part Three – The Fire Sermon

The land is dead with bare trees and empty spaces. The cities are empty with no human activity, they left against their will. The ‘rattle of bones’ personifies death and shows its recent triumph in the city. The stanza creates a mood of loss and sadness. The only thing in the city is the rats scuttling around near the dead corpses, the scene of flowing rivers now disrupted with bodies, pollution and fallen buildings.

An arrogant man walks in and demands service from the girl after he’s finished he just leaves. She smoothes her hair after the encounter – meaning she’s so used to it that its part of her life. Music is playing in the background which gives her the memories of the past. (scenes of happier days). The memories of bright colours everywhere, peoples conversations distant memories as they go into flames.

Part Five - What the Thunder Said

A vivid picture of a wasteland where once mountains where, mountains is personified symbolising ‘Nature’. Nature has the power to redeem itself (the seasons). Hope is invisible and is symbolised by rain. Cities were once built, destroyed. Built once more and destroyed again.

The above notes will help me as a ‘guide’ to the images I shall create. My initial thinking is to create the various images but with no text to neighbour them. Allowing the audience to ‘fill in’ the gaps with their imagination, mainly as we all think differently!!