In thinking about my resolution, I thought it would be in fitting with my themes to title it "destination". After a trip to Snowdonia, two mountains stood out to me and looked to create two outcomes that relate to my themes of place, nature, and exploration.
Snowdonia
Tryfan is a less well known mountain, though not without its notoriety. Part of the Glyderau range within Snowdonia, its one of the only UK mountains that cannot be climbed without scrambling (a sort of mix of hiking and climbing, not hard but not easy). Most of the routes up to the peak start on either the North or South ridge of the mountain, with my approach starting from the North ridge.
An interesting feature of the peak is the presence of two monoliths at the top, known as Adam and Eve ( Siôn a Siân in Welsh), that can be seen from the base and as the mountain is passed. according to local history, travellers passing by used to believe that they were two ill-fated climbers.
An interesting feature of the peak is the presence of two monoliths at the top, known as Adam and Eve ( Siôn a Siân in Welsh), that can be seen from the base and as the mountain is passed. according to local history, travellers passing by used to believe that they were two ill-fated climbers.
Climbing Tryfan, I felt more at ease than climbing Snowdon. Despite the fact that the route was less well-trodden, the wind was buffeting us, and that most of the climb was a scramble. Yet, my brothers and I stopped about halfway up. The wind was getting strong, and the path we had to take had no shelter from it, and was only a couple of feet wide. The way down my we strayed from the path and went our own way.
On the way down, something that piqued my interest was a boulder that had been divided in two by whatever unknown force, and the resemblance of these two shapes to an embrace between two figures. Along with the numerous spines littered along the top of the mountain, it was almost like a crowd watching. With this in mind I decided to focus this project on the figures, or suggestions of figures on the climb, specifically the cracked boulder. |
I started to experiment with printing off the images and cropping them down to the central shape, and folding them and contorting them to give them more depth, and almost fit them together like a puzzle.
This worked well to an extent, creating interesting shapes and forms between the images. The problem was that the images didn't fit together as well as I wanted, which led to try and take photos from more creative angles to reach a more ideal outcome
This worked well to an extent, creating interesting shapes and forms between the images. The problem was that the images didn't fit together as well as I wanted, which led to try and take photos from more creative angles to reach a more ideal outcome
With the smaller set of images, I looked at experimenting with the space between the shapes, rather than the up close elements. I stuck the images up on a wall, equal lengths apart. I wasn't satisfied with this outcome, as the space between felt too empty. To fill it, I used two thin strips of paper and wrote words referencing the embrace-like appearance of the stones, and stuck them in the middle of each space, which I felt worked better than purely empty spaces.
|
I was inspired to try the first experiment method, but this time more consciously thinking about how I folded the sheets with the intention to stick them together, bringing them back together in a way. I used the process as before, making general folds and creases to fit a shape, and then started to think more about how to make them fit together better, cutting and sticking them until they locked in together. I then put them on top of a podium and documented the result.
Snowdon is the more well known of the two, given that its the tallest mountain in Wales and one of the "three peaks" of the UK. Six main paths snake up to its peak, each of varying difficulty and length. The path that I travelled up was the Llanberis path, the longest and 'easiest' path.
The name, in old English, means "Snow-hill", which rang true on my climb. The Welsh name, Yr Wyddfa, tells a far more interesting story. It translates to "the Tumulus/ the Barrow", with the tale being that the peak of snowdon is the burial place of a giant slain by King Arthur. When it comes to Arthurian legend, the Snowdon Massif is rich with it, with the place of Arthurs death supposedly being on a ridge between two of the peaks, the lake where excalibur was thrown after his death, and the cave where his men lie in wait for a time when they are once more needed.
The name, in old English, means "Snow-hill", which rang true on my climb. The Welsh name, Yr Wyddfa, tells a far more interesting story. It translates to "the Tumulus/ the Barrow", with the tale being that the peak of snowdon is the burial place of a giant slain by King Arthur. When it comes to Arthurian legend, the Snowdon Massif is rich with it, with the place of Arthurs death supposedly being on a ridge between two of the peaks, the lake where excalibur was thrown after his death, and the cave where his men lie in wait for a time when they are once more needed.
Climbing Snowdon started easy and got harder the higher up we went. Weather wise, conditions were almost perfect, up until the peak. Warm (-ish) weather, and the sun lighting up the surrounding valleys, looking up to a view of a peak shrouded in clouds and peppered with snow. As I got higher up, I began to take less photos, not out of apathy or frustration, but from fatigue and nerves. I underestimated the climb, and nearer and near the peak I felt worse and worse, to the point where we turned back, only a few hundred metres from the peak.
To try and build on the sense of vertigo and dizziness I wanted to manipulate the images to build on these senses and feelings of vertigo and height. With most of the photos I played around with reflecting or mirroring the images, creating sprawling skies on some, or trying to make it seem as if the ground was pulling away on some.
While researching for the spoken aspect of this project, I came across two poems that I felt were relevant to this project (and much better than anything I could write. The poems were "Night on the Mountain" by George Sterling, and "No worst, there is none" by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Respectively, they read:
The fog has risen from the sea and crowned
The dark, untrodden summits of the coast, Where roams a voice, in canyons uttermost, From midnight waters vibrant and profound. High on each granite altar dies the sound, Deep as the trampling of an armored host, Lone as the lamentation of a ghost, Sad as the diapason of the drowned. The mountain seems no more a soulless thing, But rather as a shape of ancient fear, In darkness and the winds of Chaos born Amid the lordless heavens' thundering- A Presence crouched, enormous and austere, Before whose feet the mighty waters mourn. |
No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring. Comforter, where, where is your comforting? Mary, mother of us, where is your relief? My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief Woe, wórld-sorrow; on an áge-old anvil wince and sing — Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked 'No ling- ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief."' O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep, Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all Life death does end and each day dies with sleep. |
Both Poems are very relevant, given that both have mountains as a key theme. Without going into some in-depth analysis, Night on the Mountain is literally about mountains, and the fears and almost malevolent nature of them, whereas No worst uses Mountains as a metaphor for depression, elaborating the difficulties and hardships of it. With these in mind, I decided to use Night on the mountain for my project.
I experimented with displaying the images, having both displays positioned high up, to force the viewer to look upwards at them. This was to try and create a sort of discomfort relating to the sense of standing at the base of a mountain and looking up at the peak.
The first display was set up on a wall, with he photos organised in a stepped shape, with a "peak", letting the viewer follow the images up to the top and then back down again, with the lowest photo being easiest to look at. I took extracts from "night on the mountain" and stuck them around the images, as well as other short phrases from the poem as well, adding a kind of 'thought process' to the images as they are viewed.
For the second experiment, I put the photos on the ceiling, again forcing the viewer to look up, albeit in a more uncomfortable fashion. On the wall adjacent to the ceiling I put an arrow pointed up, with "Night on the Mountain" above it, in reverse, with the idea being that by looking up at the images, the viewer reads the poem bottom to top (the right way, but wrong?)
For the third experiment, I displayed the photos in a larger format, rising up from left to right in a box, so the photos would almost surround the viewer as they looked at them. To fill in any empty spaces inside I drew in topographical lines as a simple way to keep the box from looking too bland but not distracting from the images inside. I was more happy with this resolution than the others, but I still felt like there was something missing from it to give it just a little kick in the right direction.