walk 2: walking and knotting
As I walk, collecting thoughts, collecting sticks, tying knots.
For walk 2 I adapted Sally's prompt for a photo every minute and instead tried to notice my thoughts and collected an interesting pieces of wood or debris with each shift in my thinking. I carried twine with me and knotted the wood/thoughts in a chain which became increasingly cumbersome and tangled as a I walked. At the furthest point of my route, First Beach, I experimented with an installation in the sand, and then back at my house, I tried several other iterations -- nailing it like a clothesline, suspending it from a high branch, dragging it through the grass... One effort is the video posted here in which the knotted trail moves through the frame, reminding me of the local train tracks I walked along earlier in the day.
Wow, these are stunning! What an interesting concept - reminds me of Theseus and the clew (the thread he uses to trail his way back through the labyrinth). Did you look at Brett Day Windham's work (listed in Week 1 on CE Link)?
ReplyDeleteThe photographs of the pieces are each compelling to look at on their own (I really enjoy all the different ways you photographed them) but it would be even more fascinating to come across these the field. The video also adds another dimension to the work.
The last image in particular makes me think of Mary Mattingly's piece, Pull. Similarly, the concept of dragging around the things you find also remind me of the environmental activist Rob Greenfield who wore every piece of trash he made on his body. And do you know Alan Sonfist's work? I would check him out if you're not already familiar.
Hello Cathy! I love all of these visual outcomes / experiments within process. The sense of scale in an image greatly impacts contextual meaning. When I first saw your wood/debris images, I viewed them as sticks making me think of the concept, walking sticks. I am curious as to what your thoughts were when you picked up each of these interesting pieces of wood or debris and how they shifted your thinking. Your first submission of photographs offer the viewer beautiful moments of discovery. I am particularly drawn to the way you captured layers, repetition and pattern within nature.
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ReplyDeleteThe video really brought this walk to life for me. How interesting!
Also your second image of the sticks in front of the water stopped and made me think about barriers in nature and in life at this time that keep things and people away from one another. Thank you for sharing.
I am so impressed with your technical abilities, but just as impressed with your creativity in making a beautiful sculpture out of the assignment. And... my read is that your train of sticks is really a stand in for humanity's burdens, which you have taken upon yourself to bear for all of us.
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