Stem

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 Stem on the ground

 

 

 A witch's hand 

lay on the ground

 

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Lost hexagonal paving slab, Canasvieiras; corners; demarcations of areas of land

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Lost hexagonal paving slab, Canasvieiras

 

 

 

This is the same wall as featuring the ladder. I wonder who put this slab here?

 I am very fond of the corners of buildings especially when showing the same colour of wall with the light hitting one side more than the other so you can see a contrast.

 I will definitely seek out more such motifs. 

 I also like wasteland: building lots cleared but never constructed upon, abandoned parking areas, paving dilapidating. 

I very much like these areas to be enclosed, distinct. 

 Merely the fact of enclosure dramatically alters how we perceive a place. Enclosure declares ownership, privacy, usage, safety, danger, that access is limited or directed to specific uses or persons or species. 

Enclosure can be strongly physical, such as a high wall, or more modestly by light fencing. Or it can be even more lightly demarcated by a change of use, such as is seen between fields. And it can be demarcated symbolically, with occasional signs  as in London postal areas, or simply a thing that is known, like the territorial zones established by children in playgrounds.

 

 

 

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A white piece of paper on the ground, folded slightly

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A white piece of paper on the ground, folded slightly

 

 

 

 

I now regret not inspecting this piece of paper which might have had some important or interesting things on it. 

 

Now it is raining heavily and the paper is surely destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

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Ground, Campeche

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Ground, roots

Nail

Centipede cask

Wire

Twig

Shell, stalk, stones

Ground, Campeche

These are "gothic" in the sense that they are like clues- concentrated and significant and related to mortality. They relate to previous series of photos such as Witchy, which is an open-ended series concerned mainly with forests.

But if they are clues, then they are clues to what? Something that happened, not long ago. Perhaps somethings no-one though consequential, but which are dramas, nonethless.

They were taken with a cellphone and I'll admit that I was not entirely aware of their contents until I started uploading them onto the computer: a process of detection.

Working with the camera allows a concentration on detail. This is something I find tiresome in painting, where I am much more involved with gesture and movement. When painting, my own psychological responses intervene with much more force, too rapidly for much detail.

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Witchery

IN relation to this series of photos two things come to mind- how Charles Manson urged his followers to create "witchy" objects using found items when they went on their killing spree. He is and was totally mad, of course, but it it hard to deny the aesthetic force of his imagery. This, much more than his ideas explains his enduring interest.

The second though that comes to mind is the memory of an afternoon spent twenty years ago at The Glen in Innerleithan, near Peebles, Scotland with Mark Haddon and others making sculptures out of bits and pieces of twig, the idea being that these sculptures should be so subtle that they are almost not discernible as sculptures at all- they lay at the interface between art and nature.

Regarding that memory, isn't it funny how time "telescopes" so some events or conversations are as fresh in the mind as if they happened yesterday, while others, ostensibly more serious fade (my first marriage, for instance, which I never give a moments thought to)?