casting runes
This series continues my inquiries of how memory and time are embodied in the materiality of “objects” and life-forms (sentient and non-sentient) within site/place, and how the excavation of the various layers (by situating self as a reciprocal participant and intuitive channeling component of the larger whole) reveal messages/stories/resonances/emotions that can then be expressed through the myriad creative processes/genres/languages, with the intention of giving prominence to the direct agency of what we call “Nature”.
The pieces in the series consist of rubbings/drawings of river stones, tree seeds, rain falling, and the casting of stones soaked in earth pigments multiple times into the air and landing on large sheets of paper. The marks left by each of these distinctive actions are then interpreted as musical arrangements. Composition lines mimicking sheet music paper are directly added to the surface with graphite (as in the piece titled memory music stones). This
is further translated into actual notes, which are transferred to sheet music (examples included in the portfolio images). They are then played/performed (the first done on a “liberated piano” by artist/musician Mauro Fortissimo, included as sound to the video titled casting runes).
I am interested in how the marks left contain the histories of the stones (or seeds/trees/rain/weather/seasons/genetic and molecular structures etc.) from the beginning of their formation in cosmic and geologic time (the elements of fire/ice/etc.), their movement/migration/change in size/shape by other forces and the seasonal ebb and flow and shifting of the river water, wind, sun, and animals, and how these aspects can be divulged by the interaction through me choosing to participate in the magic and mystery of life at and within a particular place – of being alive in that particular moment...
I look forward to enlarging this series into a body of work that eventually becomes a type of symphony.
At its root this work is primarily about the beauty and joy of the creative force that surrounds and imbues all life, and the active manifestation of giving visual, physical and auditory recognition / representation / and voice to it all – to our part amongst the many within the swirling arms of this galaxy and the understanding of what power truly means and is...