Forest

Obsession /  by Justin Harrison

For some reason I am still obsessed with the movie The Revenant. I found a documentary on it and have watched it as I make in the studio- I’ve totalled about 6 times now. I love so many elements, the story of making, the relationship with the land - it’s importance, the narrative of people and the forest. The Music. It picks on elements from my dreams, and deeper parts fo my subconscious.

There is some deep mystery in the forest and it moves in a different way around the frozen waterfall. The water somewhere between pouring out and becoming, the space around creation. Differance.

I want my work to connect, touches upon these elements.

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Foot note: The director and another individual talk about racism - their beliefs about what it is and it’s consiquences. I disagree. They makes the statements from a white perspective, which will always be problematic. He and understates it’seffects and consequences. He over simplify what is a complex and dangerous issue.

 

Refill /  by Justin Harrison

I’m back in the woods harvesting material. I’ve had an idea that’s pressing on me, although I suspect the raw materials won’t be here. I do find something of interest and set to it - cutting disks off a larger fallen tree, It’s hard work - as I cut I looking for an efficiency and wonder what this means also. Why be efficient? Why is production so important. Does efficiency matter in the Liminal?

I like that it’s all cut bulky hand but the novelty is beginning to em wear off.

More importantly I think is that I am in the forest. It’s a place of refilling - even if I don’t get much made. The head space I find is likely more productive…but then do I need to be productive? Or is that a capatilaist conditioned relfex?

 

The Forest /  by Justin Harrison

Image my own

Been thinking about ‘The forest’ as a ‘place of non place’, of unbelonging.
Of being lost.
Also does the Forest as a site resist colonialisation? Especially in it’s resistance of structure and the centre. An anti-land (Cixous)

The strong vertical presence marks a from of time - yet time also looses it’s bearing here. Bodies grow tall and then yield themselves to the ground.

Hamlet encounters the Ghost - the Spectral in the forest. His father pulled out of time in his orchard. ‘Time is out of joint’ Hamlet.

Ursula Von Rydingsvard’s work rooted in the body of the forest, her life a liminal existence.

What else does the forest offer as a site, no site. Does it reflect the essence of Derrida’s enquiries, of the nature of Differance, the spectre, and so on.

Is it a site of transformation? The passage through summing change. After all the forest is a site of constant change, growth and decay.

On a practical level - I keep returning here to dwell, think and work. I feel like there is an obvious connection that I am blind to.

 

Cleansing /  by Justin Harrison

I had some time, so Iwent to the forest. I find it such a refreshing location to be in. Immersed in sea of tress and green. I find a place to be, to quiet myself.

I took my coffee pot - it’s a ritual. A place of prayer.

There is a clearing I favour, occupied by Oak and Holly. When I came upon it today it had litter and various bits of evidence human passage. It upset me, it felt very wrong. I cleared it as an act of cleansing and humility. Remembering that I make mess, literal and spiritual.

Some small works came…’little nothings’ - quick and unselfconscious. (More limited timed pieces). Playing with materials. Stripping. Stripping small branches of their bark The work seems overly simplistic, but then this is an exercise in me getting out of my own way, not censoring everything and realising what can come out of play. So much is serious and ‘oh so earnest’.

The drawing followed and I can’t decide which way it should go up, or where it should go. But I almost need to just get this stuff out of my head to make room for the following ideas. A cleansing. My head is full of stuff, it’s getting crowded.

Breathe.

I see the forest as a site of constant change and micro transformations. Growth and Decay. Transformation up and Transformation down.

 

Day 2 in the Forest/// /  by Justin Harrison

Stripping the wood down to the raw white wood I find there are about 4 different layers of to get through till you get to the wood.

My wife worries that I’ll be cold, I have a thermos of hot Japanese tea but I don't need it the work is hot it’s self.

I spent more time stripping wood of it's bark. Learning about the material and how it responds. It informs about the time scale if I want to work larger. It will take longer than I thought.

I also burnt the wood a little, it was green, wet and took time to colour. I'm not sure if I like it. Whether it will work how I imagined. I wanted a gradient that transitioned well but its patchy and organic. It's not how I drew or imagined.

I tested a stripped stick and a natural one against each other. Hammered them into the dark brown earth. There was something about it I liked and I wonder if it might work better on a much larger scale. There does seem to be a language to it - the contrasting vertical presences. Although I miss the craft of drawing and sculpting - this feels too simplistic somehow.

Perhaps when I add copper to it the voice will come through more.

Another thought crossed my mind. how. would the work change in voice if I were to cast sticks in porcelain? It would take black colour well if I wanted to dip or stain. Raw porcelain has that toothy bite to it which would take the black.

I'm also worried that this is taking a lot of time, all this effort for work that's not very good.

I took more sound recordings too, they still amuse. 

Oh year and the ribbons, as I shaved the bark off I made ribbons which reminded me of the blown out tire, the same forms occurred, similar violence had occurred to the object to create the form.

Stripped.