Yesterday I was mainly embracing the unexpected in archaeology and the potentially chaotic in my art practice.
Many of the structures on the Ness of Brodgar site are built over earlier buildings. So when excavating the structure nearest the surface, earlier ones suddenly appear. On either side of this drawing are the two early structures that have emerged within the main excavation.
There are also unusual features that appear within a structure where least expected – like a small orthostat (upright stone) running parallel in front of a big one.
Added to this, lovely pieces of decoration are found, like the cup-marking made by ‘pecking’ in a stone beside an entrance. These cup-markings and cupules occur on many sites. (One of the archaeologists showed me a photo of spectacular ones at Kilmartin Glen in Argyle.) No-one can be sure of their meaning or the intentions behind them. The temptation is to call them ‘art’, which is not only questionable but also a modern concept. All one can say is that someone or some people left their mark.
So can I call what I am doing in this residency ‘art’? I am documenting activity on the Ness dig through a collection of drawings, plein air painted sketches, and sound recordings. The film I make using this material is aimed at evoking a sense of being on site and my experience within it. This is all bound up in my curiosity to research the world around me – as a way of coming to terms with its, and my, existence. But it could easily be described as journalism without a camera, rather than art…
