Snowmen

It seems that The Place has become a veritable art zone. Since I last came here, two snowmen have appeared at the bottom of the cliffrock.

It seems, furthermore, that someone has removed the rebar that was marking the location of the planted tree. Great changes are afoot.

Too dark to film.

FaceSpace (hand)

Under an overcast sky, I arrived at the Place and noticed that the imprint I made yesterday is still quite clear. While stretching on the standing rocks, I considered what the next step might be. Since the standing rocks still have untouched snow on, I decided to bring the relief sculpting out from the cliffrock and adorn the snow-on-rock with a face.

A cold minute or two left the rock with a face in the snow, and me with a cold face.

I felt that a face needed a body, and this was provided by a handprint.

Yesterday's imprint works in a different way: the negative-space body seems present in the space. It does not seem to be something from or of the space.

Today's face with a handprint for a body creates a picture on a rock. I am more interested in imbuing the space with traces of my presence. Here's a proposal: can I imbue the space with my presence, bringing it to life with my traces in the snow? Perhaps this is what I have already been doing...

For a snowy rock to have a facial aspect appearing as from within it (rather than a caricature picture on it) would seem more appropriate to my cause of revealing/depicting the inner vitality of all things.

As ever, less is more.

If snow is watching you through invisible glasses, what is it thinking?

Snow Space Man

The addition of snow brings a whole new medium and a lot of potential to the Place. I decided, while standing on the Standing Rocks, to stand next to the CliffRock and press my body into the snow that adorns it.

1: I let myself fall back against the Cliffrock. In this position, I felt more like part of the landscape than at any other moment during this project. 

2: I stepped away from my imprint in the CliffRock, turned 180 degrees and buried my front in my imprint.

Result: a snowy face, and a well-formed detailed negative space relief depicting a bespectacled human standing in the snow. In a way that these photos cannot capture, there seemed to be a presence standing against the Cliffrock. For the first time I felt I have really made an impression on the Space/Place. 

Mark the Tree

Wearing Snowboarding boots, I trudged through the thick snowcover to the Place, which has become a winter-wonderland-grotto-type space.

Noting that the tree I had planted was now covered, I uncovered snow to locate it, and marked its place by sticking the Rebar into the snow beside it.

I then re-designated the Standing Rocks as Standing Rocks by printing my foot in the deep snow on top.

Down Dog

 I arrived in the place under heavy snowfall. The Cliff Rock was heavily dusted, and the Standing Rocks were covered enough that they looked like they had big piles of snow on top. The tree was sticking out of the snow all around it; snow adorned every needle.

 Rock Standing was a somewhat treacherous activity, due to slipperiness of snow.

 A dog barked and approached, and became timid when I jumped down from the rocks. Its owners, embarrassed, tried to control it.

When I was back on the rocks, the dog timidly and ferociously approached, and became friendly when I acknowledged and petted it.

After the dog had gone, I echoed its presence with a Downward Dog stretch between the Standing Rocks. Got very cold hands.(How do dogs walk in the snow without their paws getting very very cold?)

Going through the Motions?

Different camera position; similar sequence of stretches. Light had "gone". Am I just going through the motions? Is this necessarily a bad thing?

Light Fades

Again, I set up the camera at the Overview Spot and captured images of me performing various stretches on the Standing Rocks. More apparent in the timelapse than me, is the fading daylight.

Overview Point

I took the camera up to the Overview Point, from where I filmed a standard performance of my Standing Rock stretching routine.

Being a CliffRock

Looking for a place in which to position the camera, I found gaps and cave-like features up to the right of the CliffRock. It also formed an Overview Point from where all the through-passings of The Space can be seen. 

I made use of the space by morphing to it - amalgamating my body into the landscape - human organism adorns rocky features.

Being a CliffRock.

Is this what I mean when I talk about Performance Architecture? It feels like it.

The Light Has Gone

 I passed the camera around three circles around three perpendicular axes, as I stood atop the Standing Rocks facing the CliffRock in the damp darkness of the evening. The resulting footage would most likely have been unwatchable - had it been light enough to see anything of it.

What happens to Art when "The Light Has Gone"?
What does Unwatchable mean?

What am I actually doing here?

I am turning-up-in/inhabiting a space daily (or almost-daily) and seeing / looking / watching / hearing / listening what happens.

Dark Matter

It got late.

So I went out anyway, having missed going to a lecture at the library on Dark Matter, and thought I would attempt to draw some dark matter of my own.

But the moon was shining brightly through the clouds and it was light enough that the fear of bears was not so strong. So I drew some of the  forms of the moonlit CliffRock.

I assumed that drawing in the dark on crumpled paper that I was unable to see would result in an uninteresting piece of crumpled  paper. But it turs out that the action of drawing has captured something of the essence of The Place.
Perhaps, however, it is just a crumpled piece of paper after all.

Haircut

I arrived in The Space.

Then I sat by The Tree (that I had planted) and shaved parts of my hair to fall down near and around it.

Will hair provide nutrition for tree?

Rises

Today the moon rises over the mountains in a clear blue sky, as the snowmakers hish white crystals all over the ski slopes.

I set up the camera to film from over the road, taking in the silhouette of the whole BigRock.

After my bigform standings on the Standing Rocks - and a failed attempt at a 180 degree jump to land on the rocks - I jump down from the Standing Rocks and run towards the CliffRock.

My first attempt to rise up the CliffRock is thwarted by gravity. My second attempt takes me to about head height, where I cling to the Rock for a few seconds, before attempting to run down the CliffRock, and landing on my feet, rather harder than I anticipated.

I walk - a little faster and more adrenaline-fueled - back over the road to the camera.

Watch Carefully.

Nothing Ventured...

... nothing gained

Blue Sky Sunny Day

Blue Sky Sunny Day. The presence of fallen settled snow redefines space and allows visualization of its history. The places where people walk are free of snow. The marks on top of the Standing Rocks reveal that someone has stood on at least one of them prior to my arrival.

As I stand on (between) the Standing Rocks, 2 people pass by: by being in their way, I am putting the planted tree at risk of being knocked by foot or by bicycle wheel.

The slide-mark made by my foot sliding off the top of one of the Standing Rocks echoes the longer-term larger-scale of the slide-mark made by the removal of trees to form a ski slope, which is visible in the distance.

 There are so many possibilities here. What am I actually trying to do? And what am I actually doing?

 Sitting on different rocks the other side of the road, in what are the last few rays of sunlight, gives me a wider overview of The Place: The CliffRock is rather big, and the trees cover it in a group of individuals. Cold air. Chilly Fingers. Siren and building construction sounds. The smell of incense. The constant babbling dribbling sound of melting snow at the start of winter.  

First Snow

Today was a grey day that turned rainy and a rainy day that turned snowy. For the performance, I simply let the weather do the work: I stood and stretched on the Standing Rocks, and let the camera capture the snowfall.

The snowfall was also captured by my fleece.

The Tree is Dancing

My brother Steve found out that I go and do something in the woods most days, and doesn't know what I do, so when he suggested we go out for a walk after lunch, I decided to take him along when I visited the Space today.

 It is certain that Steve's presence changed my demeanour considerably. I think I became more cheerful, and felt somewhat enthusiastic about showing him what I'd been up to. The performance itself consisted mainly of me showing Steve some of what I'd been up to - standing on the Standing Rocks; the tree that I had planted; the sounds made by the ReBar in the tree-growing ceremony.

Steve also noticed some things that I would not have noticed if he had not been there:

Reading Glasses

The performance today did not take place, except as a potential in my mind on the way home. I arrived home late having not even had lunch, so the importance of routine (and reality of hunger, and the fact that I have a cold) led me to dispense with any woods-based activity. 

Interesting/noteworthy event of the evening: Steve found the pinhole glasses and asked, "What are these for, exactly?" I told him they were for focussing the eyes when reading, and he tried it and said,

"I can't read through those!"

Creative effort this evening went into carving a Hallowe'en pumpkin.

Achievement?

If I set out not knowing what I want to achieve, and return having achieved little or nothing, then am I, in fact, wasting my time?

Today it is raining. As I have a cold and an umbrella, I decided to take the latter with me. I also took the former, although I had less say in that decision.

Arriving at the space wearing the glasses, I found that the Standing Rocks are not too slippery to stand on, despite the rain.

I had a Good Look at the cliff rock. It has good form: a pleasing symmetry. Perhaps this is partly what attracted me about this space.