Poet Peasant : an exhibition by SJ Fowler
Bouda Gallery – July 11th to August 5th 2025
Opening hours Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 12 noon to 5pm
132 Palace Gardens Terrace, W8 4RT. Closest tube, Notting Hill.
https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/poet-peasant
“An exhibition of poetry as curios, discovered text and found literary sculptures drawn from previously unseen works, selected asemic writing and the poetic props of performances across the globe. Drawing from fifteen years of rabid activity, this exhibition evidences the breadth of visual and conceptual poetry from one of the definitive experimentalists of the British 21st century literary scene. On the site of the former Notting Hill Books, a formative space for many, including Fowler, this exhibition emphasises the potential of the marginal, peculiar, detritus-as-poetry mode so removed from the medium’s stereotypical obsession with neatness, craft and clarity. From bear suits to homemade skeletons, handwritten novels to concrete poems, Poet Peasant represents some of the core aesthetic concerns of SJ Fowler - playful, eclectic and anti-singular, it is a deliberate mess of fun and weird visual literature that stretches the bounds of what poetry is.” www.stevenjfowler.com/poetpeasant
A podcast with (when) Art Talks with Sabina Tocháčková : Poet Peasant : 22 Jul 2025
https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/blog/2025/07/when-art-talks-poet-peasant very nice to have a chat with Sabina Tocháčková unpacking the Poet Peasant exhibition while ranging over various topics like how my work has changed over the last 15 years.
Poet Peasant Event Program
Poet Peasant Performance and Poetry #1 - July Thursday 24th : 6pm start.
Readings and literary performances, a chance to see the exhibition after hours. With new live works from Eleanor Wilders, Danica Ignacio, Matthew Sokulsky, Jonathan Boyd, Lavinia Singer plus Colin Herd and SJ Fowler (who read from Oberwildling a collaborative poetry collection with a poem for each year of Oskar Kokoscha’s life, on the 10 Year anniversary of it’s publication, with copies gifted to the audience.)
Poet Peasant Performance and Poetry #2 - July Saturday 26th
A balmy afternoon event in the gallery celebrating the sound sonic vocalised talking improvised (and also just readings) in live poetry and duets between writers, artists, musicians. Featuring Eleanor Wilders and Aimee Nimmo, Victor Rees, Sophia Rahim and Cameron Christie, Alexander Murphy, David Spittle, Vanessa Onwuemezi and SJ Fowler, as well as tributes to the bookseller Sheila Ramage, who ran Notting Hill Books in the space of the gallery by Stephen Watts and Charles Boyle,
Cosgrovia! The launch of Patrick Cosgrove’s selected poems : July Thursday 31st
Without exaggeration one of the UK’s most original and influential poets and performers, Patrick Cosgrove’s remarkable and original work was celebrated with the book launch of his selected poems, Cosgrovia, from Steel Incisors Press, available here https://www.steelincisors.com. Alongside Patrick’s performance to share the book there were readings from some of the poets whose work he has influenced, including Stephen Sunderland, Lisa Blackwell, Cameron Wade, Martin Wakefield, Simon Tyrrell, Beverly Frydman.
Closing event and Film-poetry : August Saturday 2nd : 2pm
A leisurely afternoon of poetry-film screenings and literary-cinematic happenings in the gallery curated by David Spittle. Exploring the potential of text on screen, poetry within the medium of cinema, and documentaries about poets. Featuring David Spittle, extract of a work in progress / Huw Wahl, I AM A FILM (12mins, 2022) / Vilde Bjerke Torset, Samso (9:21, 2025) / Scott Barley, Hinterlands (iPhone 6+, 7mins, 2016)
A note on : Poet Peasant on Culture Calling and The Upcoming July 2025
https://www.culturecalling.com/london/news/czech-centres-summer-artistic-residency
really nice my upcoming exhibition at the Bouda Gallery has been flagged by Culture Calling, it’s going to be a great month in Notting Hill.
we have four events planned and the content of the exhibition has ended up being a really weird celebration of conceptual poetry as found objects and flotsam
nice too the exhibition too was shared by The Upcoming too https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2025/07/09/visual-poetry-exhibitions-open-for-summer-at-notting-hills-bouda-gallery/
