After mind-mapping three of the potential themes we have been given for our graded unit I found that the themes I found the most inspiration from was Ritual and commemoration,home and displacement and the natural world.
I decided that Ritual and commemoration worked best as due to the current outbreak of the coronavirus the normal infrastructure of society was broken as we are all currently in quarantine. This means that the every day rituals we take part in are temporarily no more and the human race have now stepped back in time and are re-connecting with nature and appreciating/worshipping ways of life that are perhaps not from this era.
I started to research pagan/native Indian rituals on ledgendsofamerica.com and https://www.patheos.com/library/pagan/ritual-worship-devotion-symbolism/rites-and-ceremonies and looked at symbols and instruments that are within common use in these societies.Whilst researching these I was reminded of the wicker man and Midsommar which I have only watched recently. I found the Wickerman to be really dated in its views and sexualisation of women but I liked the masks that were worn within the film and the creation of the woven sculptural element of The Wickerman itself.
Midsommar I was absolutely fascinated with due to it’s use of symbolism and strong often disturbing use imagery using the human form and illustration painted on the wall. Over the last couple of projects, I had come to realise that my work can be dark and I hope that this film may hold an influence over my current project even tho my work can sometimes have a dark humoured side to it.
I started to look at items within nature. Items which had been reclaimed, buildings that had been abandoned and overgrown and abandoned items within buildings.As this is something that genuinely interests me I know this will be the driving force behind my project aswell as my interest in the practice of the native indians and Pagans.
Inspired by Rauschenbergs combine’s I started to experiment with found objects creating installation within the abandoned buildings. The installations started to slowly more and more turn into shrines. Planks of shaped wood perhaps used for structure in one part of the building started to take on a ritualistic shape of its own.
I find visually interesting the aesthetics of this piece which using a varying degree of different materials which you don’t often find together
Upon exploring we discovered a dead rat and pheasant. As grim as it may sound, I did consider adding them into the installation as food was often something offered to the gods during pagan and native Indian rituals. I also considered putting the rat into the noose to signify the temporary end of the ‘rat race’(I own care gloves so health and safety wise this wouldn’t be an issue)
Heather's blog 