I've had a chance now to go through the video footage ably shot by Trevor for Rogationtide. Can it really be a week ago that we started out in glorious sunshine? *shivers*.
Video stills are great! I just love them. You can have exactly the moment you want, and pinpointing exactly when that moment is appeals greatly to pernickity types like me. I'm posting a few of them here, but already I can see much more work ahead if I want to take stills from each of the 14 crossing-points to include in the final edition of Kalender.
I've been distributing the Palm Sunday Kalender around the public buildings and cafes of Norwich, and by the end of today I'm determined to have mailed out the Palm Sunday and Easter issues to my 30-odd gallery and press contacts. One of the things that's held up the Easter editon has been my rash commitment to a free gift of 'onion skins and a silken thread' for the lucky recipients to have a go at dyeing an egg. I've managed to collect enough bits of onion skin for precisely 37 little packets so far – out of the 180 needed! So this afternoon it's off to the greengrocers in the village to beg for some of the loose onion skins in the bottom of the onion box. He won't think that's a strange request – will he?
www. world-tree.co.uk/festial
imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk
Part Two, continued from yesterday.
At each location I gathered something that grew there in abundance; that seemed to characterise that place. Luckily I was able to find something different for each … and then, at the next place I made a four-letter word using the plant material. Each word would have some relevance to the place where I found myself or how I was feeling at that moment. So, like last year's action where I took earth or water from one crossing-point and tipped it out at the next, it made a strong link around the boundary. I found after the first day that I wasn't convinced that this idea was really working, but kept going with it as it's probably better to judge its validity later on. Even if it doesn't work as 14 photographs forming a 'boundary', some of the individual ones are quite nice I think. Others feel somewhat contrived – sometimes it was difficult to find an appropriate word with just four letters in it.
Thinking more about words, I decided to do something with runes. This is very pertinent to Norfolk as an eastern county. It's often forgotten how strong the Scandinavian/Germanic heritage would still have been – both in place names and probably something more intangible – in medieval times. So, at each crossing-place I drew a rune marked on a stone from a special bag, and placed it on the puddle of beer in a seemingly-significant ritual action. Then I scratched the same rune in the earth of that place.
Lots to do at each crossing-point; lots of scrabbling about in bicycle panniers for the equipment; cold fingers yesterday that eventually rebelled, but on reflection it was worth it, definitely. It both feels like the end and not the end at all, as there is A LOT to do to actually make something of all the stuff I've collected along the way. Not to mention a final edition of Kalender.
www.world-tree.co.uk/festial
imogenashwin[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk
The last festival of my medieval year has happened! It was Trevor's idea to repeat the first festival again at the end of the project, and I was very happy with the prospect. For one thing, Rogationtide is a three day event so there's plenty of time to really get into it. It's a significant commitment of energy too, but the rewards include an enormous feeling of achievement – and masses of material to work with later. Plus, I enjoy working with Trevor. He was magnificent! All the documentary photographs and video are his – I just had the ideas and performed them.
It was fascinating to see the differences in the landscape from last year. 'You can never step into the same river twice' said Heroclitis, and how right he was. Rogationtide fell earlier this year as it's linked to Easter, but the differences in vegetation and feel of the various locations seemed to go deeper than that, and not only because of the vagaries of the weather.
The first day was gorgeous sunshine, the second was kinda on and off, ending up quite chilly, and the third was sunny again, though incredibly windy.
Deciding what to do at each of the 14 crossing-points this time, I knew I wanted to incorporate sound, words, ritual activity and an action that involved taking something from one crossing-point and doing something with it at the next.
So, at each site, I played a note on my treble recorder. There were 15 of these (including the first crossing-point twice to seal the circle at the end), and this lent itself to travelling up the octave and back down again, finishing with the note I started with. I'm hoping to edit the result into a video. I chose a recorder as it's related to medieval instruments and also I liked the idea of 'charming the fields' like the Pied Piper. I held the note for as long as I had enough breath to do so, so the video will amount to 15 of my breaths.
Then there was the ritual pouring of a mugful of Festial Ale at each crossing-point. This looks quite strange in the video footage. I hope it evokes libations and other kinds of territorial marking(!). When it came to the last pouring the mark of the first was still visible on the road, and it felt very good to be able to hit the same spot.
It seems an incredibly short time since I was collecting the Palm Sunday Kalender last Friday, but I found myself at the printers again after work today, collecting the Easter edition. I like its egg yolk yellow cover, and the printing itself is better this time, too!
As for the content, well, as I remarked wistfully last time, it was great being at art school and getting that critical feedback. Any students out there, I would definitely advise you to make the most of it as you'll probably miss it afterwards.
Anyway, there's little time for critical reflection right now as the time for double helpings of rubberstamping, putting as yet non-existent free gifts into bags, stapling, guillotining and inserting flyers draws nigh. Not to mention mailing out the 30 copies of each to press and gallery contacts.
Oh well, at least the two issues can be mailed out in one envelope.
