*Courtesy of Birhanu Manaye
Japanese Suminagashi marbling, gelatine, drawing ink, hot water, stills from the video projection onto Shogi natural Kozo paper (32gsm) 965* 1500mm.
When, MA Student Showcase at the Museum of English Rural Life, March 17th – June 14th, installation shots.
This art projection asks questions about the intangible nature of time, (national) identity and tradition (itself an avatar of time) through the monochrome rings of Suminagashi ink marbling – itself an age old tradition of Japanese culture, that unlike European marbling, forms concentric rings – not unlike the rings of a tree that tell us how old it was before it was cut down.
The names of traditional ritualistic dances performed throughout the seasons and across the country, are placed explode and disappear through the marbling. As the words are placed the marbling is displaced and the words seem to explode like fireworks off the surface or just dissolve into the water. The projection is on Japanese kozo paper – a strong but light handmade ethereal gauzy paper that echoes the theme of the piece.
Audio/Sound
The audio is set to nostalgic or analogue, to question the relevance of these dances, and the motivation to keep such things alive and kicking. Included is the morse code for S_O_S as well as church bells, galloping horses, footsteps, radio interference and a slow beating heart. Sounds interests me particularly when it is dislocated from the image itself.
The names of traditional ‘English’ Dances that I have selected: Twiggy Witch; Bogland Jig; Flower of Death; Black Nag; Beating the Bounds; The Hanging Judge; Mortiford Dragon; Hare of Much Marcle; Blackthorn Wassail
Stills of various attempts at different fonts
They are strange sounding and could conceivably be from a piece of fantasy literature or the names of countryside pubs. The font I chose to write these words in is loosely based on the font from titles of the period comedy of the 1980s Blackadder.
Title and Conception
In the Seven Woods series, Dave Pearson, 850*500, charcoal on paper
My journey started with the large Seven Woods series of drawings by Dave Pearson found in the Museum of Rural Life. Pearson’s work depicts in charcoal the tradition of the Abbots Horn Dance, with characters from traditional mumming plays (mumming plays are form of folk theatre, wherein the hero fights and villain and is brought back to life: themes of death and resurrection). I had to look up mumming plays in the Dictionary of Folklore – I found it amusing that it came before murder, especially with the violence of some of the marks on the paper. And tradition can be and often is violent; and it can also be about the fight to keep those traditions alive. The charcoal is thick and dark and the atmosphere is haunting.
Stills of experiments with idioms and figures in the early stages of conception,
Twiggy Witch; Bogland Jig; Black Nag; Beating the Bounds; The Hanging Judge; Mortiford Dragon; Hare of Much Marcle; Blackthorn Wassail, Spring 2026, Kozu paper, Suminagashi ink, gelatine, hot water, drawing ink. 400*310mm
To accompany the video projection, I took prints of the Suminagashi marbling with the nine names of traditional dances used in the video as they were close to disappearing. The prints are thereby freezing a dynamic and ephemeral moment in time.
First Conception
I started out with time idioms this seemed to have too little bearing to the themes of Dave Pearson. This is the original video I created.
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