A.A. Milne’s Cherry Stones is a children’s poem that wonder’s about what life will bring. The child asks whether they will be a tinker, tailor, soldier or a sailor; whether they will be rich or poor, virtuous or corrupt; and whether they’ll turn rabbits out of their pockets or travel through space on rockets. They wonder at the seemingly inexhaustible possibilities of life and liken this to the abundance of cherries growing upon the little cherry tree in their garden. Yet the poem’s title, Cherry Stones, reflects a diminished view from adulthood: that with each choice our possibilities successively narrow until all that remains are the consequences – the pits or stones – of these choices.
Artist Aaron Perkins and screenwriter/director Sam Dixon’s Cherry Stones takes inspiration from children’s games of make-believe that model these choices. Perkins and Dixon’s paintings and writings converse across media to similarly invite make-believe and to offer an imaginative escape from the game of life carried on just outside the pockmarked and graffitied walls of The Old Lock Up.
Image:Aaron Perkins, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, 2021
