The images and videos on this page are presented here to offer a small degree of context for my practice’s primary location.
The first two images show the pair of willow trees I came to collectively call Skullwillow. These trees often served as my starting and returning point from daily wanderings. In the first image you can see how the trees formed a teardrop portal into the setting sun. Skullwillow became a collaborative site of forest bricolage, where I would position skulls, bones, shells, and other found objects. Eventually, moss and fungi would grow, the wind would blow, spiders and other insects would take up residence on these objects, resulting in a kind of slow and ongoing collaboration with flows of energy in Goblinwoode.
On 15/01/2023, I wrote:
“Young buck skeleton fallen off branch and hangs down now, upheld by the sides of the skull, similar to [how we found] his predecessor. I moved some items but left most as-is. Less certain of the value of my own contribution to the arrangement, and/or taking more interest in what the storms decide to do.”
There are also a couple of images of the cottage where I stayed. The fence between the house (Jammu) and Goblinwoode ran along the south side. Hopping the fence took me to a small lane (Griffin lane) with old stone walls on either side. Following this lane for under a minute, I would arrive at an old willow tree I named Griffin, just east of Skullwillow, where flowed a stream for most of the year. Video 1 is a view up the lane. Video 2 is a compilation I assembled from clips of Skullwillow and the stream, where reflections of Goblinwoode can be seen visually entangled with the undulating movement of water. Video 3 is a shot of Goblinwoode in motion during a small wind storm.
These are brief perspectives on the forest presented here simply as a way to help bring the reader into a sense of place as they read through the theory and practice.
