Philip Bennetta was born in Wigan in 1946, his family: Cornish and Lancastrian. He is a psychologist, poet, artist and printmaker. He is married to the artist Susan Bennetta and they live in Charente, France where they have studios and the beginnings of a writers and artists retreat. He studied creative arts at Dartington College of Arts and Kent Institute of Art & Design. Beside writing poetry and making art he has worked creatively in education, therapy and psychology for many years in the UK, Chile and Hungary.

His poetry has appeared in various publications ranging from the South East literary magazine, Connections to the journal of Management Education and Development. He works in subject sensitive media, often incorporating sound and text and seeks out opportunities for collaborative projects.

He is passionate about the hand-sewn pamphlet and artists book; the making of these being part of the creative process and most of his publications take this form. A recent work includes the pamphlet, recording and soft sculpture sound of absence. He is drawn to Arte Povera with its use of commonplace materials and the poetic associations, which cling to objects.

“My work is essentially poetic and is (re)searched over and over, letting in what is there in the present. I work in this way with commonplace materials, objects I have found and text, to produce ongoing transformations. I actively seek collaborative projects and work with other artists, printmakers and writers. This is basically my set of rules. Although these artefacts may be recorded as a single work or archived in a pamphlet or an artists book, they are not the work. The work is an ongoing process.”

Comments on previous collections:

measures

(sequence of 40 poems and recording, published as part of MA thesis, Lancaster University, 1990)

Measures offer virtually alternating light and dark shades, optimistic and pessimistic glimpses, thesis and antithesis. I found the whole set of poems said much that is important about my experience and doubtless much of others’ experience of work and ‘course’ life. It also offered glimpses of something else: better quality alternatives challenging the imagination and taking us away from the idea of “separate” selves.                                                

Robin Snell, September 1990

approaching and

(a collaborative project, involving workshop sessions, with staff and printmaking students at the Kent Institute of Art & Design, Maidstone running over two years in which thirty two original prints, including etchings, woodcuts and digital prints, were made in response to the text. As part of the process, an Artists Book was made and a limited edition of monochrome copies also produced.)

Thank you for sending me approaching and I greatly enjoyed, admired and envied it. Being so keen to collaborate on the conjunctions of image and text I found it both a delight and a model. You must be very pleased. And the cumulative effect, the strengthening voice, of reading a longer sequence of your poems was an added pleasure.

Michael Curtis, September 2002

PUBLICATIONS

measures, University of Lancaster (1990)

get a dog and other poems, Community of Poets (1994)

get a life and other poems, Community of Poets Press (1995)

to be continued, Pamphlet Poets (1997)

missing in soft focus, Community of Poets Press (1996)

fragments, another suburbia, Community of Poets Press (1999)

approaching and..., Oakwood Press Proof @ KIAD (2002)

no sign, Community of Poets & Artists Press (2004)

sound of absence, Community of Poets & Artists Press  (2006)

The Scarpfoot Zone: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry From Kent (eds. David Shields, John Rice and Michael Curtis), Aegis Press 1996

COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

puzzle box (poem & woodcut) with Michael Curtis

her face (poem & lithograph) with Michael Curtis

neither i (poem & digital print from painting) with Randal Cooke

earth & stone (poem & digital print) with Alan Young

and now (sonic art work), with James Bennetta (2001)

the wardrobe (storytelling - dvd), with Wyndham George (2004)

ARTISTS BOOKS

terra incognita 2000

monoprints whitstable 2000

untitled woodcut book 2000

untitled monoprint book 2000

waiting (sonic art work with text) 2001

approaching and ... (2002)

monoprints minis bay 2007

e-mail Philip

poetry favourites:
Poetry Magazines
Poetry Kit
WriteWords
Jacket Magazine
Artists Press 

and in the shop ...
pamphlet collections -
"sound of absence",
and
"no sign",
Community of Poets & Artists Press;

collaboration -
"approaching and...",
Oakwood Press

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