TWIN SONNET:

On our circuitous journey to locate a format that could express the tones, textures, and nuances of twinhood, we created a new genre entitled: TWIN SONNET. We reimagined the traditional 14 line sonnet as a grid and merged it with the visual form of a diptych. Inspired by the works of Robert Raushenberg (Factum I & Factum II), Allan McCollum (The Shapes Project), Jennifer Barlett (Rhapsody), Ray Johnson (Moticos), we created a visual vernacular using graphic shapes, colors, and patterns to represent the ontology of the double and the nuances of the lived twin experience.

We identified unique parallelisms that coexist between the sonnet and twinness— an inextricable doubling embedded within the canonical pattern of rhyme schemes, sequences and stanzas (ABABCDCDEFEFGG), which echoes the multimodal granularities, and playful dynamics of the twinhood.  Each set contains 280 modules in total, referencing our shared gestational origins in the womb—the trichotomous stanzas of the quatrain correspond with the three trimesters of human development that is followed by the sequential arrival of the couplet.

Each diptych is a dynamic duet of mirroring, repetition & reflection—the persistent doubling of forms encourages a reciprocal back & forth interaction, a ping-ponging, to-ing and fro-ing, where differentiations are made in perpetuity, producing a conversational and on-going dialogue that reads like a Gertrude Stein poem, “… I double you, of course you do. You double me, very likely to be. You double I double I double you double. I double you double me I double you you double me.”

We view the sonnet as a reconfigurable matrix, an interconnected system that invites us to celebrate and record the phenomenological dimensions of twinness. We were drawn to the history of the sonnet as a ready site of resistance, where generations of marginalized poets have recorded their own unique experiences. For us, the Twin SONNET exists as a double portrait that reflects the rhythmic intricacies of the twin bond.