Traversal and Trace

Large clay imprinted circle created as part of my first ritualistic walk for an event in the Whitstable Biennale, September 2012.

Imprint-

to produce (a mark or pattern) on a surface by pressure.

As the deadline looms for my MA final project, written paper and show I have found I am frequently in a state of general confusion. I wanted to write this blog earlier this week but I couldn't think exactly what to write about as there seems to be so much information collated over 2 years, now needing to be compiled into both a limited time-scale and final presentation.

I have been able to negotiate this confusion by revisiting my research paper and looking back over my reflective journals. In this way I have seen where I have come from and what direction I was heading to next.

There is a chapter in my research paper titled 'Traversal and Trace' which looks at how we move by walking, discovering our environment at a human pace and what traces we leave in the landscape as we pass through.

Earlier prefabrication of the clay circle in my studio, showing the imprinted decoration made using natural objects found on 'The Street', Whitstable. 

Deliberately leaving traces of our existence is possibly one of the things that we as humans want to do, it proves that 'we were here', it can be seen as our legacy. This can be seen in the micro occupations of early Beaker people, for example, who decorated their pottery with imprints of cord, comb, twigs etc to the macro occupations of the Romans, such as the super straight Stone Street in Kent.

I have studied two artists that have opposing views on leaving a trace. Richard long creates evidence of being in the landscape, for example an early piece of his art was called 'a line made by walking', which was just that. A photograph of it can be seen here. www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-made-by-walking-p07149

Hamish Fulton is another artist who walks in the landscape but he wants to 'leave no trace'. His art is based on the experience of the walk itself. Which can only be imagined by the viewer, his post-walk artworks are often large-scale graphic text interpretations of that experience. He recently had a wonderful exhibition at The Turner Contemporary. Here is a link to that.

www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/hamish-fulton

I have struggled throughout my project with the notion of how to physically way-mark the Salt Way and yet gently tread on the earth, 'leaving no trace'. Hopefully, by creating a series of 'earth kind' site specific artworks to act as way-markers and producing a digital site specific 'Storywalk' along a section of the route, this will become a creative solution to that earlier

dilemma.

 

A psycho-geographical recording of an earlier project within the MA. I am recording a walk in a number of different ways. Looking back, even here I am fascinated by traces and imprints, creating a collection of rubbings of suburban surfaces!  

So, now I need to leave this blog and get on with some preparation for my MA show. I want to create three models of my site specific artworks, to scale. In keeping with my interest in mark and imprint making in the environment I have decided I will experiment with Plaster of Paris. Using this as a fairly thick base for each model I will endeavor to imprint the surface. I hope to be able to use glass and copper too hopefully creating three beautiful precious looking objects. So watch this space, I am hoping that the actual action of moving forward with my project in a physical way will put any general confusion in my head into order!