The Walking Poet

Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
Photograph by Joshua Edwards, taken at one-hour intervals during the 680-mile walk across Texas (2014)
The shell of the house in Marfa.
Poet Joshua Edwards and his wife Lynn Xu infront of the shell of their house in Marfa.
The house in Marfa, photograph by Joshua Edwards

»A walk is always filled with significant phenomena, which are valuable to see and feel.« – Robert Walser, a Swiss author from the 1920s, from whom this quote is taken, was a passionate walker with a life and oeuvre full of movement. He rarely had a permanent home and dedicated many of his texts to walking. He later even died on a walk in wintertime. – The multifaceted project »Architecture for Travelers« by poet Joshua Edwards is driven by the same restlessness. In addition to the reference to Walser, the project meditates on the question: What does »home« mean to today’s itinerant artist, who alternates between countries, jobs, exhibitions, and residencies? It entails a 680-mile walk across Texas: 230 photographs taken at one-hour intervals to document the walk; a book of poems and a »travelogue;« and finally a house that Josh and his wife, Lynn Xu, have built in Marfa, Texas.

The walk from Galveston Island to Marfa began November 10, 2014, at UTMB on Galveston Island, Texas, and ended December 20 at 404 West Galveston Street in Marfa, Texas. The photo gallery shows some of the moments the walker captured on film. The works are collected in the book »Photographs Taken at One-Hour Intervals During a Walk from Galveston Island to the West Texas Town of Marfa,« published by Edition Solitude.