Alchemy of Heart

Day 5 Beauty and Horror, Hostile and comforting, Intense and spare is the land of heart. ......was the day full of intensity and contradiction. In the space of 5 hours I experienced a great inner joy and happiness of being alive but also an intense feeling of dread and of being threatened by people as well as the force of nature. I saw and felt the beauty and horror at the same time.I walked through silent bogs, with only bird song echoing over it in an irregular sound. I walked in a majestic deep forest. I climbed a mountain through a dead forest with the skeletons of the trees and the ghosts of violent history looming within it. I was followed by a stranger. When I reached the top of mountain I got caught in a thunder storm and hale stone with lightening flying all around my head. I crawled down paths that had turned into streams and bogs. Slipped and cut my leg open. Kept walking. Saw rainbow. Then the sun came out. I went to sleep in a meadow watching the brooding skies and the clouds swirling around the mountain I climbed earlier. I felt comforted by the fact there is no human soul within 20 mile radius around me but I also felt incredibly scared and overpowered by solitude and my own mortality. Materials – needles, clear cast resin This work is a reflected manifestation of a performace I conducted in summer 2010. It is exploring one’s relationship and deep emotional bond with the land and landscape in which they were born. On a more personal level the walk also marked an end to a 10 year period of a personal life journey I have embarked on since leaving the place and country of my birth. During the performance I undertook a 10 day (187km) solitary journey across the mountains I grew up in. For the duration of the journey I slept in the open air and tried to understand and absorb the language and rhythm of the landscape. I kept a written, photographic and video diary recording my feelings and observations Over the following year I reflected upon my experiences and developed a body of work consisting of a 10 sculptures that together form an installation capturing the essence of each day of the journey.