snowka reviewed Information Desk by Robyn Schiff
Art and Wasps
4 stars
Schiff was an on-again, off-again staffer at the information desk of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and this experience and her memories of it shape this dreamy, associative fugue of thoughts on art, parasitism, colonialism, family, and the mundane and egregious indignities of working in a public museum. Yet she states in the acknowledgments that "Though I haven't worked inside the Information Desk now for more than twenty years, the experience has so asserted itself into my art that I regard the Information Desk as my private writing desk; I am always seated there."
I was drawn to this poem for its unique premise. But what made the reading experience powerful and enjoyable was the unexpected juxtaposition of the subject matter structured inside a series of poems with names like "Invocation: To the Jewel Wasp." While its self-designation as an "epic" is only playful (she makes brief, wry references to …
Schiff was an on-again, off-again staffer at the information desk of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and this experience and her memories of it shape this dreamy, associative fugue of thoughts on art, parasitism, colonialism, family, and the mundane and egregious indignities of working in a public museum. Yet she states in the acknowledgments that "Though I haven't worked inside the Information Desk now for more than twenty years, the experience has so asserted itself into my art that I regard the Information Desk as my private writing desk; I am always seated there."
I was drawn to this poem for its unique premise. But what made the reading experience powerful and enjoyable was the unexpected juxtaposition of the subject matter structured inside a series of poems with names like "Invocation: To the Jewel Wasp." While its self-designation as an "epic" is only playful (she makes brief, wry references to "Arms and the man- / made hammered steel plate" and "arms and / the mansion you can stroll through"), the poetry mixes entomology, art criticism, and personal reflection in a way that I found completely engaging.