As sure as paths lead
us through places, they also lead us across time, revealing the histories and
legacies of places and people. And just as the paths we tread are eroded and
diverted by circumstance, so are the tales we tell of them. This is folklore.
*
The first leg of my
project was to take myself out into nature and photograph, just to submit to
its awesomeness. I went to St Leonard’s Forest in Horsham where both my parents
walked as children. The photos I took here also held a moment for me where I could
access my parents’ past. The next step was to then film the static photographic
prints, in order to reactivate the moment; to let my personal history walk on
alongside my parents’. (Another hope is that this will challenge the viewer’s
initial perception, encouraging them to look closer at nature). I projected
this footage across a room filled with intercepting screens of fabric and
paper. The beam of the projected image illustrates space, and the intercepting screens represent time; the moments at which different people inhabit a space and
cross paths with others. I also set up a smaller slide projection in a corner
which shows slides of typewritten texts about walking and the landscape (both
my own and others’) to show the inadequacy of communication through language as the
words click on; the click of the typewriter mirroring the rhythmic beat of a
walker’s footfall.
The brief perception
one is allowed of the frames in the film and of the text on the slides makes
sure the viewer can never get the whole experience of what I saw in St
Leonard’s Forest; and no experience of my parents’ and their parents’ lives
there. The intercepting screens the break up the projected image also further
confuse perception. This all works together to hopefully tantilise the viewers
into wanting to see more for themselves – to walk. And even if they don’t
appreciate the concept, they cannot deny that standing before a great wall of
Fir and Pine trees as they tower magnificently above, is anything but humbling.
