Dairy Feet

A work made during GNAP (Global Nomadic Art Project) 9 day residency on the River Dart, Dartington, Devon, UK. The residency was called `The Ephemeral River’. All work had to take its inspiration from the River or the theme of water, and to be short-lived 'Dairy Feet’ – one of several works. Over the course of the residency I noticed that the young cows returned to favoured watering spots, leaving their hoof prints in the mud at the edge of the river. All animals leave marks or scents, so I decided, on their behalf, that these would be milky. In vain I tried filling the imprints with fresh milk but it just vanished, so I used dried milk powder. As it was, it was a game of `cat and mouse’ making the work, for the cows seemed to be very curious about what I was doing, and would keep returning, treading over what I had just made.