Cave of Ice Mothers

An inkjet print of an analogue photograph. Ink drawing and engraving has been used to modify the image. I took the original photograph in Upper Teesdale at a cave site that has featured in my work over recent years, particularly in the audio work Fissure (2019) and the performance Singing Over the Bones (2020). The cave entrance was photographed from inside on a freezing, snowy day. The constellation of Orion with the bright star Sirius is shown engraved against the blue/purple ink through the cave entrance. This star formation has changed little over millennia. The cave was the resting place of a woman from the Palaeolithic period whose remains were found during 19th century excavations. The work is part of an ongoing series of images exploring the deep time of the North Pennines (both the deep past and speculative deep futures), using modified prints of analogue photographs taken over a period of a few years.