Raking Light

Characterized by a rigorous attention to each word’s layers of etymology or latent semantic possibilities, Eric Langley’s debut collection takes its cue from the art-conservation technique of “raking light,” where an oblique beam is thrown across the surface of a picture plane to reveal its textures and overlays. Under raked light, a picture reveals its damage and deterioration, the craquelure, canvas-warp or inconsistent frame tension, in order to assess authenticity and reveal the artist’s abandoned intentions. Likewise, Langley’s poetry – attentive to resonance and echo – looks to pick up on lost meanings, to pay attention to buried intent, acknowledging language’s abandoned significances.