Profound, beautiful, and exquisite.
Henn Kim is a highly respected designer and illustrator. Her work has been commissioned by the BBC, TED, Vogue, Nike, and many others. She has designed many book-covers, most famously for Sally Rooney’s Normal People.
As a teenager, she struggled with mental distress, spending nearly two years being mute. This period in her life has given her an insight into human emotions, which she brings to her work.
Starry Night, Blurry Dreams explores the darkness of depression, and the complexity of human relationships, through the use of graphic poetry. As traditional poetry explores the profound, the sacred, and the profane, through the use of written imagery, Kim’s drawings, sitting alongside just a few words, give us both imagery and a key with which to unlock it. Some of these poems are heartbreaking, such as The End of the Story. Others are surprisingly witty, such as Dry Your Tears, yet others are dark and profound, such as Drowning in My Own Shadow. They all have a touch of the charming and even the darkest images seem to include a note of hope.
Like many poetry collections, this work is divided into sections.
Waiting for the Night deals with the emotional roller-coaster of being human.
You and Me looks at the desire to be known by another person; the drive for connection, including the quirkily erotic Fall in Love and A Man in Love, which pays ironic homage to Freud. Waiting for Your Call jumps from the page as a visceral representation of unrequited yearning. Kim does not shy away from using anachronistic imagery, such as the corded phone.
Good Night explores the mind’s wanderings at night, whether awake or sleeping.
Sunday Mood is just that: a journey through the psychological complexity of that most troubled of days. It’s meant to be all about fun, but many of us struggle through, and Sunday afternoon depression is a recognised phenomenon, clearly about something more than just not wanting to go to work tomorrow. Kim gives us poems about the good: Summer and Friends, the bad: Sunday Mood, and the hungover: First, Coffee. This section also includes some works about art itself, and its obvious role in Kim’s own mental well-being.
This is an extraordinary, and thought-provoking collection. Consistently entertaining, occasionally humorous, whimsical, and humane, Starry Night, Blurry Dreams is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary poetry, and/or illustration.
This book will be a comforting and uplifting friend in times both dark and light, and a worthy addition to any poetry collection.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Twitter: @TraceyKorsten
Distributed by: Bloomsbury
Released: August 2021
RRP: $24.99
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