summer solstice , leskernick site

LESKERNICK - JULY 2000

In February 2000, Professor Cowie, Head of Research at Dartington College of Arts organised a regional research event the 'Complexity Conference'. Falmouth College of Art lecturers Mike Venning and Martin Hubbard presented their work, 'Explanations and Meanings. Photographic Images' at the conference.

Part of this presentation was an exhibition created by anthropologists and archaeologists from University College London, lead by Babara Bender. 'Stone Worlds' (1999) is a travelling exhibition and the result of five years work on Leskernick, Bodmin Moor : it moved from survey and excavation between the prehistoric and contemporary landscape, creating a dialogue between past and present including interactive installations, where visitors were encouraged to share their ideas about Leskernick past and present and in so doing add to the layers of response to the land site and its poetry.

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Although I had not known about the exhibition, it is just the type of exhibition I would choose to go to, for those rich archival sources, images, layers of meaning which add to my work and an understanding of the land and its peoples.

I had spoken with Martin some time before the conference and he seemed enthusiastic about my use of ice and wanted to experiment with other 3D forms. Together with Simon Persighetti, theater lecturer DCA and Mike Venning FCA, we presented an instillation and our joint experiences of the Leskernick site alongside Babara Bender's 'Stone Worlds'. The work was presented as 'Face this Way' at 'Between Nature' conference held at Lancaster University in July 2000.

We visited the Leskernick site on Bodmin Moor in May, where I met Henry Broughton one of the archaeologists who has been involved in this project since 1994. He brought the Bronze Age settlement into much clearer picture, for there are no outstanding features. The exploration for me was getting a feeling of the place and having time to know the stones one in particular seemed very resonant. Having previously worked on Dartmoor in Devon, I was keen to get to know Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.

The land rising towards Leskernick appears like Savannah, barren at first glance but looking closer reveals tiny ground hugging violets growing above the marshy bog /tundra. Once this area has been crossed the landscape of open moor runs away. On the horizon distant granite boulders rise, waves in a vast sea of land and sky. The expanse is very noticeable, I noted that our group stayed close together. An echo of the reliance and cooperation which would have been required by the Bronze Age settlers was made real for me, when I got stuck in a bog. This experience was real, the suction was so great that my wellingtons were engulfed, the porridge consistency rose above my knees and it was only due to the quick action of our group hauling me out, that I missed becoming a bog woman for future archaeologists. I can't help but wonder what story might have been deduced from such a find!

The walk to the site took about forty minutes and en route we saw evidence of old peat cutting. The site has Bronze Age hut circles sighted across a hillside and on approaching they appear flat but as you get closer the circles become more apparent, mainly due to the horseshoe shape effect created by the absent doorways, the gap between random stones and placed granite boulders. By spending time with the stones I began to know this man-made outcrop in all its fallen glory. The air is sweet with an occasional salt essence, the wind fair to moderate, moans its lost breezes, peoples and forests. Bleached bones seem as pointers, strands of sheep's wool are as tumbleweed to the land, unlike Dartmoor where strands hang on gorse and wire. Boulders cast in profusion, a giant's puzzle scattered but readable in many ways. The archaeologists found that all the doorways face outwards to the horizon, looking towards distant hills and other settlements. None of the hut doorways face each other. Some of these doorways have been closed by crossing the main jam stones forming an x shape. It is not known why and we might only surmise that illness or death might have been signified in this manner.

In one way this demonstrates how little we really can know, how much is pure conjecture woven with wistful threads of a modernist society? Longingly we look back to a time of myth and legend and find a purity not less complex than our existence today, yet seeming to represent a time of earthed spirituality. Through the archaeologists dedicated attention to detail we can usually find tangible connections i.e. utensils and artifact which translate into some possible reality but in peat soil which is acid based little survives. Here it is the rocks that speak the elemental spirit rules.

As with all pre Christian people, the Leskernick people would have had a reverence for the stones and water sites, springs and rivers. Astronomical alignments abound from stone rows, hut circles to doorways. Seven of the eight stone rows on Bodmin Moor are found in the northeast varying from due north-south, e.g. 0 degrees to 63 degrees east, many alignments point us to the eightfold subdivisions of the Celtic year. The length of days, height of the sun would have had a significance to these people, i.e. the rising and setting of the Sun and Moon, their lives part of a natural cycle marked by the solstices and equinox. Nights mapped by stars, guiding lights and keepers of earthly secrets dance attendance on the Moon in all her serenity.

These people with weather eyes would have been watchful. Today the weather here is instantly changeable. On one visit, we had bright blue sky, a purring grey which turned charcoal before our eyes and scattered us with a hail shower, the ice felt as a blessing. -Sun-Water/ice -earth, in a clear air. See Sun-eyes Mid summer…..

When I compare Leskernick with, 'The Merry Maidens' Stone Circle near Lamorna, there is a more expansive feeling in the lay of the land whereas 'The Merry Maidens' are in a sheltered site flanked by farm hedgerows. I based my 'Standing-Stones' on the maidens, using my photographs of the site. I was very interested to sense the very real difference of personality and place in general, for even in their gentle repose the Leskernick circle has a tremendously strong sense of peace and strength, in part due to the flat plane where they are lying, below the Leskernick settlement which is a very powerful area. (The circle /Leskernick is not named on the O.S.map and is referred to as the unknown circle.)

Our group met often to discuss ideas, working on individual areas of interest and meeting to try them out. We had thought of making an ice doorframe, a moment framed and melting into the land - all those memories, happy homecomings and sad partings which must belong to all humanity throughout history - the doorway joins different worlds.

It is interesting that this concept seemed so perfect if not a little transposed onto the place. The site-sensitive approach, which I prefer to go with, told me that water from the site had more potency and a greater significance to the site than a transposed ice doorframe.

Summer Solstice weather eyes (JUNE 21st 2000)

By the light of the moon we grow pale and melt into the night, and are reborn by the sun

Soltice either time summer,winter a time at which the sun is furthest from the equator and appears to pause, before returning.

I think of all those Theater sessions held by Lecturer Keith Yon in the Ship Studio at Dartington. One part of our learning was to "Enter" and "Exit" the theater space but much more than this, I learnt to listen. Gradually I became aware of each drop of rain, each spider and the wooden floorboards ticking in the sunlight - dust settled, time passed and we could only witness the small changes. Opening my mind by listening allows me to hear the site. Entering and pausing in the horseshoe shaped gap, which held the absent doorway, was an exercise. But when I listened to the site, the Moon became noisy although I did not visit this site by night. As a result of my feelings about the site, I decided to make a moon out of water as a reflection of the moon that the Bronze Age people would have gazed upon- water being their most precious resource.

The Moon disc was made from water collected from Leskernick and carried across the moor past the granite rocks. One rock rich in quartz has a watchful quality yet is very huggable. I took the water collected at Leskernick by train to Lancaster where it was frozen on the Lune industrial site. This work was presented at Lancaster University as my part of "Face This Way & Stone Worlds." Lunar Disc This water was taken from a stream at Leskernick, carried two miles on foot across open moorland, then frozen as a celebratory moon for my 50th birthday and my grandson Oliver's 10th birthday. I then carried the water to Lancaster where it was frozen on the Lune Industrial estate and presented at the 'Between Nature' conference. This same water will be re -frozen and then returned to the Leskernick site on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. The coloration is due to peat in the water, it glows with its history both past and present.

With thanks to DCA Research Dept, Babara Bender, colleagues Martin Hubbard, Mike Venning, Simon Persignhetti, special thanks to Graham Royal, Ian Millard of Brake Bros. Lancaster, (production Manager) Tony Courts, Lancaster University, and the staff at Carmell bar

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