Big Science

Kirsten Hampton and Kumi Korf are rekindling a collaborative book art project in which poems will serve as text to intaglio prints in book form.

Hampton Film’s documentary “Hidden Books: The Art of Kumi Korf,” produced by Kirsten Hampton and directed by Sam Hampton, premiered at the Library of Congress, had broad reception on the film festival circuit and won the 2011 CINE Golden Eagle Award for Documentary Short. The film was the culmination of a lifelong friendship between the Korf and Hampton families. Kumi Korf has work in the collections of Getty Research Institute, Harvard University’s Houghton Library, Museum of Modern Art Library, National Museum of Women in the Arts and Victoria & Albert Museum among many others.

Kumi Korf  -  “Leaf Light”, abstract landscape aquatint print, silver, violet, yellow, red.

With the working title of Big Science, the draft manuscript pays tribute to Kumi Korf’s late husband Richard P. Korf, Cornell professor emeritus of mycology. Using his last academic paper as a text source, the poetry sequence celebrates the life and work of the renowned plant pathologist, scholar and mentor who encouraged study out of the lab and into the field, the inclusion of young scientists in serious exploration and discussion, and attention to research specifically meaningful to saving to planet. Poems recollect the poet’s experience of summer retreats with the Korfs to Exe Island, a biological research station in Big Rideau Lake, Canada.

The Growing Collection (working title)

Kirsten Hampton is also working on a new book-length collection of poems exploring the themes of place, home, travel and return. The draft manuscript features multiple forms of poems as well as experimental forms and prose. Early thoughts are that the Big Science sequence described above will appear as the center section in the arc of the book.