We saw 5 oryx near enough to make out their handsome colouring and pattern. And then zebra! I thought about their extreme markings. They are absolute like the shadows. I love the calligraphic marks of their coat, like walking drawings. Beautifully painted. When they stand together they merge as one. Their stripes embody the exact spirit of the light and shadow here. The mountain zebra are a slightly rusty cream and black with the rust colour stronger on their face. They roll in the red earth.
Where I had been washing was a good high river bank so I returned after some tea. I had the idea of cutting a very sharp straight line. It was satisfying work working with the mattock as lumps of sand fell away and then the more exacting work of making the wall of the river bank vertical and flat. I wanted to do this well without exactly knowing where it was going. When I went back to the bank the sun had moved around sufficiently for the bank to create its own shadow. I had not thought this through but carried on completing my work in making the face good. I climbed up onto the higher plain of the bank and stood carefully on the most protruding part at the end of the line. Suddenly the work sprang into life. The sharpness of the shadow gave an edge to the golden plains of the grass. The work was about the shadow and not about the wall itself. When the sculptural work is not about the object itself, not literal. At this moment the work had made a beginning. I feel uplifted and full of energy. So unexpected.
BALANCE between responding to the new environment and staying within the language of my interests. SPORES- the way Elvis reads the landscape through marks made, footprints, dung.
Tall river bank With the spade: good for chopping the line sharp and breaking into the clay vertically. With the mattock: no good for the edge line or top hard layer. I have to swing it out, cut into the earth from underneath and haul it up for it to then slide off the bank. Sometimes the softer earth builds up until I manage to cut into a big protruding lump so all the rest slides off- very satisfying but BALANCE… working over a 9ft drop so keeping balance is crucial and occasionally my mattock sticks into a harder lump and then jars and pulls. Here finding out with our hands the different layerings of earth, clay, sand over the years, the different levels of rain, the different deposits. Good to explore the properties and qualities of the work through my camera. Looking along the classical line the straight edge is complemented and echoed by the river bank swinging around its curve further down - the feeling of a 90 degree swing.
Keep focused and open, loose-limbed, experimental, let things unfold, push but don’t try too hard.
The earth was very hard which was good in terms of big lumps not suddenly falling off but it meant it was carving all the way. The pickaxe was the most useful at the beginning as it removes a lot of earth efficiently. For the underneath space we had to clear a much greater volume of earth than I had imagined- an awkward angle to get to. Moving into damper earth it was darker and softer breaking off like butter when I dug in the pickaxe. I was noticing every mark being made and how different they were: chiseling with a hammer the soil goes paler and is straight; with the spade the soil goes white like a scuff mark; throwing the red earth it goes up into the air in an arc like a brushmark; in mending I have to find the right consistency for the earth to stick smoothing it with my fingers or keeping it rough. I crept under the overhang of the suspended block. It was lovely and cool under there. Thinking about how I experience sculptural work beyond the visual, from different perspectives and that it can be predominantly a physical and sensory experience. I like the way this work defies gravity, the heavy mass in suspension. Once the light fell on the face of the form it had the illusion of being inverted or suspended so you could not quite fix it in space.
Purros valley building the big wall - building the void - waiting for the light - intersecting rhythms I lay in the space for a while. I feel both the heaviness of the wall and rock but also an airiness. The experience of the different temperatures that are defined by the light, warm and cool in the shadow, as clear cut as I see it. The experience of the sculpture is how I experience the space and tactile closeness of the rock. I want the space to feel wide enough to walk through but narrow enough so I feel I am almost brushing my shoulder against the rock. Delicate.
ORONDITI, Kunene river Extended crack, cleared line Throwing stones to one side Gesture prospecting Mark searching Tool excavating, exacting Hands constructing, carving , removing
Why does this process of undoing need so much time? And why do I need to ‘undo’ before I can really open up?
1) Displaced shadows 2) relationship with other forms , environment 3) using camera to explore space 4) making forms to explore, inhabit the space 5) keep in mind the essential character of a work and how that informs the filming - filming enables me to explore an area and see it contained. To understand better the essential rhythms or character of a place and how best to work with it whereby that place is no longer indifferent or impersonal but by investing time and attention there I begin to see it better like when I am drawing. As I was working out the extended block I suddenly saw more clearly the existing forms of the rocks behind and the shadows they created like I was already in an animated arena and my making was a contribution or addition to what already exists. Shifting materials Cracks Light Shadow Filtered light Reflected light Edges Ledges Blocks Corners Colour Tone Shallow curves Sharp lines Natural lines Displaced forms: slipped sliding balanced spreading rolling falling thrown extended rock, extended slab relating forms distinct forms looking through, up, down, across leaning rocks overhanging suspended sheer water: flowing, carving, revealing, darkening, eroding forms: emerging, suggesting, inverted, partial, suspended, projecting
Why do I choose one site over another?
