After last year’s cancelled dig, we are all very glad to be back. However, things are strictly limited in order to comply with Covid rules. There is only a small team on site working in a much reduced area of the […]
Dark times, indeed. Or more like grey-ish in my case. Despite being fit (at the moment, fingers crossed), having enough to eat and being otherwise secure I have found it impossible to do much meaningful work since the summer. But, […]
An alternative view of the landscape
Today saw the world premier of my film: ‘Ness of Brodgar 5th edit – work in progress’, which is around half the intended length of the film. It was shown on site, projected on to the wall of the barn […]
Last year and early this season I followed the history of Trench Y, which was meant to be a quick excavation to find the wall surrounding the Ness of Brodgar. They didn’t find the wall – just a few bits […]
Feedback is always good value. At lunchtime I showed the current edit of my film to three supervisors who are leaving the dig today. As they are all experts in the field, I felt rather anxious and hoped there were […]
No writing today as I spent most of the time on this small oil painting. It is of some unusual stones, which are due to be removed next week. Plus one drawing of work continuing around the drain. More tomorrow…
Today I have been contemplating timing in my relationship with archeology. Sometimes I’m in the right place at the right moment but unprepared. While at other times I am completely prepared but have to wait ages for the right moment. […]
A certain buzz associated with new discoveries on site today. Week 5 of the 8 weeks has been mentioned as the peak of the dig, and it certainly feels like it. There is still time to explore before the pressure […]
On the necessity of decisions. Today one of the supervising archaeologists said this: If we are not making decisions we are not solving the problem. You have to take a decision when you are digging. If it is a correct […]
No visitors but rain this morning prevented drawing. To use my time, I tried to work on the narrative structure for the film – but found it impossible in a small space of the Art Hut on an iPad. The […]
On Open Day there are so many visitors to the Art Hut that there is little chance of getting on site for more than a hasty sketch. However late in the afternoon, when a shower had thinned out the visitors, […]
A busy morning starting early making a series of rapid sketches of the start of the archaeological day collecting kit from the store. Tea break provided a chance for a pair of studies. Just before lunch there was the excitement […]
This ongoing residency requires a long view. The film I’m composing is not a final outcome. It’s a good way of collating my findings but I need to think beyond its development to wherever the project takes me. So while […]
I’m beginning to realise that my collection of material is extremely wide ranging and somewhat chaotic. The film that I’m making, by layering artwork and sound, will need a narrative. Time to get working on a story board. There are […]
A day of beginnings and near endings. Most of the volunteers were starting on extensions to Trenches T and X. The spoil heap for T is now mountainous. I recorded detailed sounds of mattocks, shovels and wheelbarrows to go with […]
The sun came out and shone all day. It was even hot enough to shed some of my many layers of clothing. Spirits were high on site and the dig got going in earnest. I spent the day at Trench […]
I have a collection of postcards built up over many years, of pictures which interest me. So I sort through them and pick out ones that seem connected to the embryonic ideas floating around my mind. Then I look at […]
I also spend time thinking about how to break them up. Grinding up ceramic had seemed a relatively simple proposition. Breaking up pieces of metal presents more of a challenge to someone with a primary practice of performance and photography.
So here are my artefacts, from which I have committed to make a new piece of work, by breaking them up to use as raw material. I read the letter to the artists that came with them and am a […]
Yesterday bad weather suspended the dig. Today I am sitting in the Art Hut waiting for the rain to stop. Even if I could stand the wind, the paper in my sketchbook will suffer in the rain. There is a […]
So I open my parcel, in some trepidation. I am very excited. It’s come all that way! What’s it going to be? It’s Priority Mail, very well wrapped and I can’t get in. There’s a letter to the artist, which […]
Making a piece of work for art/archaeology
