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'For 12 years I have lived in Taunton, Somerset,
on the edge of a floodplain for the River Tone. At times of inundation
the meadows take an overspill of displaced water from the river and
become transformed overnight into great lakes. My previous studio, and
my home, overlook these events. Whilst the floods can be traumatic for
many people regarding their property, livelihoods and ability to travel,
they appear to have been an integral part of living in this area for
thousands of years. The waters echo the first stage of Nigredo -
covering, obliterating, breaking down and removing.
Calendar 1 (2014) is part of a series of practical investigations aiming
to understand and record aspects of alchemical nigredo in relation to
our local landscape, particularly the cyclical inundations of water we
have experienced recently and how our psyche is affected by the
temporary loss of the familiar in such an environment. Sequential images
document the action of lime-rich water dripping from a leaking roof and
falling into a black plastic bucket placed beneath.....a metronomic,
trance-inducing soundtrack to the studio I was working in at the time.
Each photograph fixes a point of movement, of water shifting states, and
suggests links to tidal motion, lunar forces and the accretion of matter
through calendrical slow time'.
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