Review: Gravity & Spectacle

Sally Brown
January 2024

When I first delved into Gravity & Spectacle (Tolsun Books, 2020), the fusion of Jia Oak Baker’s photography and Shawnte Orion’s poetry left me perplexed. The book, with a cover featuring a 1970s yellow floral couch and a person in a tall, strange mask against an abstract blue liquid photo backdrop, prompted me to jot down “look up definition of words.”

The book is divided into two sections: “Gravity” (photographs) and “Spectacle” (poetry) each spanning about 80 pages. The “Gravity” section, associated with terms like enormity and seriousness, showcases black and white and color photographs of a person donning the cactus-like mask in various urban and rural settings like an empty diner, the desert, a laundry mat, on an old payphone. Though lacking initial context, the captivating titles offer entertainment and curiosity. It seems like friends had an amusing time capturing moments in ordinary places, occasionally surrounded by oblivious bystanders like in line at a Funnel Cake shop or at a restaurant, folks not really paying any mind to this random creature. The recurring theme appears to be circles, and life’s eccentricities are playfully portrayed through titles like “Truth is a Theory of Fantastic Plausibility,” showing the interior of a dome shaped cement, graffitied building with a circular ceiling hole and two circles lit on the floor, one of them where the creature sits cross legged. The title implying truth is actually just plausible is hilarious but not crazy; more titles like “Apathy Wins,” “Another Patch of Uselessly Pristine Desert,” and “The Nonconformists Stayed Home” similarly play with word and philosophical meaning teetering with amusement and actuality.

As I ventured into the “Spectacle” poetry section, the Dada-esque play continued. It’s like trying to piece together a puzzle, filled with unexpected word pairings and inside jokes, which, I later discovered, were clarified in the notes at the end. The disjointed writing style forces readers to navigate slowly and decipher the whole. Some poems create surreal imagery like “Pavement Any Flavor,” with terms like “concrete sushi,” “Barbie Doll Toe Melt,” and “pennywise thoughts in 8-bit technicolor yawn.” Other poems satirize online existence, like “Clickbuzzbait” which reads like you’re scrolling a social media site or “One-Star Yelp Reviews of Heaven,” which hilariously makes the ultimate renowned good place as, like any other place, with something to complain about; or “Render Ghosts of the Here and Soon,” about the first photo shopping image. A few of the poems tackle serious topics with a dose of humor, like “Make Orwellian Dystopia Science Fiction Again,” about a swamp that claims to be the best, that will build a “great, great wall paid for by cancer patients who had the nerve to pre-exist.” (79) Orion seamlessly blurs the lines between reality and surrealism, making the reader question what’s real and what’s not.

The way Orion connects the disconnect is heightened in “Fence Picket White” (already mixing up familiar terms), a sort of list of objects, advice and actions;

Pickets splintered on the asphalt / neighbors you haven’t seen

since you stopped answering the door / watering their suspicions

imagination is always in preproduction / find the lightswitch

find the unsizable moment between moments /that muted instant

escape is under construction / your absence is present is almost nothing

you tried but couldn’t / get away from yourself

where the streets are paved with gossip

Trippy poems darkly charm, notably “Least Favorite Novelty Foods at This Year’s Arizona State Fair,” with items listed such as “Deep Friend Chlorine,” “Fresh Squeezed Melanoma,” and “Deep Friend Crystal Meth. The subtle connections between the photos and poems add an enjoyable layer to the reading experience, like a hidden game. The notes at the end provide insights into the mask, the photos, and the various details throughout the book. It’s worth noting that Orion released a companion seven- inch record with the band Sweat Lodge, following the Dada tradition with elements of rock and mind-bending audios. Overall, Gravity & Spectacle offers a multi-layered artistic experience that connects readers on a personal level, fusing dreamlike yet authentic topics into an engaging exploration.

Gravity & Spectacle, Tolsun Books →

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Sally Brown is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Morgantown, West Virginia. Her artwork—including drawing, painting, and performance—explores womanhood, motherhood, and the body. Her writing has been published in Hyperallergic, Women’s Art Journal, and Artslant, among others. She is a member of the College Art Association National Committee on Women in the Arts, edited the online journal Les Femmes Folles, and currently serves as Exhibits Coordinator for West Virginia University Libraries.