Driven by the sucess of using water with bones and natural items to float I decided to go down a more Ophelia inspired route and use the local river to create movement with a sheet and add flowers and the bones to it as it flowed.
The initial idea didn’t go quite as planned as the flow ws too fast and the bones and flowers floated off of the sheet too fast to capture anything.I then realsied that the idea would of worked better in still water.
The way the sheet rippled and moved in the light i found captivating.It was therapeutic to watch and made me think about giving up to forces we can’t control.The shapes within the sheet moved and changed shape moving in different directions with the flow of the current.
The heavy dust sheet then started to take on a sculptural form within the water,almost body-like in the 2nd photo which was once again fascinating to watch.And once again brought me back to the painting of Ophelia.
Once taken from the water the material took on even more of a scuptural form and i was able to create different shapes with it in the trees.The third photo made me think of a cocoon.I loved the way the light filtered throught the material highlighting the different shapes within it.
I hung the sheet to dry and very quickly realised that it created some really interesting shadows with the light projected onto it.I decided to create some child-like creative shadow figures behind the sheet.Invoking the feeling of child-like playfulness that time spent in nature gives us.
Inspired by the painting ‘Ophelia’ and the ritualistic/sacrificial element of ancient pagan beliefs I decided to mix the two together.The water gave the stagment effect of current situations,and the plant dipped into water the life waiting within it.I feel that it almost reflects how myself and many others feel just now like stagmented life forces waiting for a chance to breathe when given the normality of a ritual that we reckonise.I feel that this experiementaion worked sucessfully and I would like to experiment further with it at a later date.
A mixture of imagery using found pheasant/grouse bones on a shooting site.I found some burnt plastic on top of wood and really liked how it visually reminded me of decay and of the flesh slowly being eaten away.I felt that the bones really related well to this.I also decided to experiment with ready mades using different compositions.
melted plastic on wood,a good representation of decay and something I would like to recreate in the future
Mould/decay
potentially a deer bone?Again links to the sacrificial elements of rituals.
I really like the image of this wood hanging.I think it plays alot of tricks on the mind and acts almost like an abstract art piece.It looks like it could be part of a mysterious woodland ritual and has a feel of the blair witch project about itThe Blair witch project used mysterious symbols made from sticks/wood throughout in order to build fear throughout the movie.Ritualistic circle found whilst visiting St Mary’s loch.I yet again found an air of mystery surrounding this yet fascination.With so many questions like; ‘what is it for?’ ‘is it a burial site?’ ‘is it just kids messing around?’ it made me think how interesting it would be to create something within nature that would give people a similar pattern of thought.
Kind of like Damien Hursts; ‘Treasures from the wreck of the unbelivable’People were intrigued by ‘the treasures of the wreck of the unbelivable.’ A film was made about the discovery of them which then turned out to be fake obviously.I can understand the thought pattern behind Hurst making this having the power of knowing it’s fake and watching others intrigue is quite quite itneresting within itself
‘Ophelia’ By John Everett Millais. This pre raphaeite painting I felt connected well with my theme due to the model’s dream like connection with nature.Altho the meaning of the painting has a darker turn as the painting is based on Ophelia from Shakesphere’s Ophelia who sang whilst floating down the river before drowning. I quite like the sinister turn of events as i feel this fits well with my theme.
After collecting a sucession of various items from the abandoned village I decided to make some ‘ready mades’ and then draw continous line drawings from there.Some of these ready mades were a mixture of natural and non-natural found items.As I felt this was important considering that one of the themes is one of people going back to nature and it kind of shows that transition or partial transition through use of materials.One of the ready mades included a corroding saucepan lid and the inner tube of a bike tyre.I felt encouraged to use both these items as I felt they were representative of hobbies that people may be rediscovering currently or doing more of since their infrastructure has crumbled.
After making a dream catcher like item from the inner of the bike tube in order to make a connection with the native Americans i then decided to transform it into a pagan like headpiece by adding pieces of bark and wild flowers.
My partner owns a gas mask which I decided to use whilst wearing the headpiece as i felt that it connected well with the surgical masks people are currently wearing but also to an era where people may of been feeling emotions similar to what they are feeling now.Such as fear,vunerabilty and numbness.I also created a stick which I tied a plastic cable and bolt to which i found in the woods my ititial reaction whilst creating it was thinking of the spirit stick a Native American may of used during ritual/ceremonys but during the photo’s it had a different effect and started to look quite threatening and more like a weapon. Also getting feedback from peers and a thought i had myself is that i feel like the clothing either needs to go or prehaps experimentation with symbolic marks on the body using the red clay like mud which is very much present in this part of scotland.
Initially i took the photo’s with a stone wall in the background but I realised that the headpiece was soon being lost to the background as the colours merged too much and i felt that we needed greenery in the background in order for it to ‘pop’ and it order for the idea to better connect to nature.On the day of the shoot it was really sunny so much so that at times it was hard to get the right angle without the shadow of the photographer falling onto the model.What I did like tho was the rainbow like effect that was brought on by the sun.Also the angle my partner shot the photo’s of me from wasn’t the angle i was looking for but worked suprisingly well as due to his height it looked like I was being looked down on and gave quite an intimidating effect.I then decided to follow on from that by walking round the model and getting my partner to walk around me whilst filming.I felt that this gave the feeling that there was something out there watching you that you have no control of and yet it controls you just like the panidemic has done with many people.
In the first video you will noticed I have left me talking to my partner (Louis) in at the beggining of the video as it has quite a muffled yet eerie effect which I like.
Photo’s of the headpiece also worked quite well within nature.I also decided to capture the slight breeze moving which moved the headpiece ever so slighy on video and to create a feeling of intimidation by walking around the model
I have started to experiement with line drawings of the photo’s and what i hope to do is pick out shapes from these line drawrings and try to connect them with shapes within nature in order to make some kind of symbols out of them.
The pictures have a surreal ‘trippy’ like quality to them
I think this is my favourite as I really like the shape of the mask from the side
Whilst shooting photo’s in the woods I found stones by the river which had very primitive looking marks on them.I found this very interesting and it has given me inspiration for using a stick with some of the afore mentioned red clay mud in order to make similar marks.
Primitive looking marks.I think i will come back to look for these stones at a later date to use for further experimentation
Aboriginal cave painting which uses similar markings as thoose found on the rocks.
I then discovered what turned out to be a rats skull. (It’s jaw lay seperatley) I hope to experiment with my use of this.
Rat skull (missing it’s bottom jaw in this shot)
Mixing the sightly with the unsightly,Inspired by scenes from Midsommar
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.
Symbolic imagery used in ‘The Wicker man’ The idea of the wickerman came from the pre-druid age.Evidence of similar sacrificial sculptures have been found in Ireland from the pre-Rome era.Lots of strong ritualistic symbolism is used throughout Midsommar.Altho there is alot of gore it is often ironically contrasted against floral imagery.
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.
‘Short Circuit’ by Rauscenberg 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)
‘Self portrait with skull’ by Sarah Lucas. Altho the meaning of this self portrait is more about Sarah’s reflection of herself I like this mix of alive and dead and think this idea will work well in the future of my project.
Heather's blog 