A very temporary installation

 Autumn 2020

The breakfast ritual

I've just started a creative writing course. In lesson one we learned about free writing which basically means you just keep writing without stopping to think. Interesting exercise that ended with a paragraph about how much my hand was starting to hurt after 5 minutes of non stop scribble. 

The homework was to write 1000 words on the subject of 'Rituals'.  It had to be started using the free writing method and then edited down. Mine edited down to a paltry 500 words but here it is anyway. 

Rituals

Apart from weddings, christenings and funerals, I don't do rituals except breakfast. I'm lucky - my partner gets up much earlier than me so I wake up and smell the coffee every day.

I get up, go downstairs, slice the bread and put it in the toaster. I pour the coffee into the same mug. Then I butter the toast and spread marmite on one piece and marmalade on the other. I go to the kitchen window where I sit on a stool, sipping and munching and staring out into the garden. 

Every day I see some, or all of the following: goldfinches, chaffinches, nuthatches, woodpeckers, blackbirds, robins. Blue, coal, great and long tailed tits. Sometimes a thrush, a bullfinch, a goldcrest. Wood Pigeons, ring-collared doves, magpies, jackdaws and the inevitable squirrels. 

I also see fifty shades of green emerging from the grey silence of winter. Then watch fifty more, dappled in breezy sunlight, become part of the falling spectrum of autumn rain. 

I see human rituals mirrored from that window - a constant stream of marriages, births and deaths. Some of the deaths natural, some accidental or unexplained and the occasional cold-blooded murder. 

I’ve read that crows and other birds hold roadside funerals for their fallen comrades. Sometimes, when a crow is killed by a passing car, a murder of fellow crows will descend and walk circles around the dead bird for 15 to 20 minutes.  The crow’s close relative, the magpie, holds similar services and has even been seen placing tufts of grass alongside the departed. Is this a ritual or is it only humans to which that word applies? 

As for the marriages, there may not be a formal ceremony with invited guests but birds pairing off can be preceded by violent competition, acrobatic aerial courtship and virtuoso musical performances. Then comes the explosion of chicks from early spring to late summer often accompanied by behaviours that look a lot like love. I often wonder if that first trip to the bird feeder with the parents is an avian coming of age ritual. 

My experience of the human rituals is that they provide families and friends with regular opportunities to remind themselves and each other that they are part of something larger. There is a collective unity in celebrating together, grieving together and marking time. Recognising change and its impact, not only on yourself but on those who are a fixed part of your life.

Having managed to remain a romantic, I like the wedding ritual but the births are obligations I could do without. Funerals, on the other hand are getting much more interesting as I get older. Partly because I am no longer just a spectator but often have some role in proceedings and funerals have changed. They are now equally as likely to be celebrations of a life, as a mourning of a death. It is still as painful whatever you call it. 

Marriages have also changed and can have counterpoint divorce rituals now, although I am not sure that the guests at the first party will all be attending the second.

My breakfast ritual won’t change. Not for a while at least. I will still wake up and smell the coffee. I will still look out of the window, fixed in the present and be reminded that the cycle of nature is eternal, that birds never waste time and that squirrels are fucking geniuses. 

Crowhenge - A Community Art Project

It is an unavoidable fact that I am a bit morose living in a village after 3 decades of international city life, however, the drive to convince myself otherwise has at least resulted in a project. So ladies and gentlemen I give you.... CROWHENGE! 

The project began as an adjunct to the Crowhurst Neighbourhood Plan (NP) a community strategy which emerged over the past 3 years to give the village influence in how local housing development quotas are managed. In an earlier attempt to convince myself I belong, I volunteered to build and manage the substantial NP website. In the lead up to what was a very successful NP referendum, I was asked to submit ideas for an art project to represent the village and reflect the community ethos that had underpinned the NP. 

This was the basic proposal: 

Crowhurst sits in an area of outstanding natural beauty in which trees are one of the dominant features of the landscape. 'Crowhenge' will use local woods to create a 7-piece structure linked to key elements of village life: Community, Environment, Heritage, Youth, Business, Farming and Sanctuary. All community groups, businesses and organisations in the village can then contribute something that represents them.  

One of the woodland trusts in the village RSPB Forewood generously donated the wood for the project. I had Oak, Sycamore, Silver Birch and Hornbeam. Stage one was trimming, shaping and sanding. 

The project began in March and was installed in July. It is ongoing in the sense that people can still add things to it at any time. It is the first time I have done a project of this nature from concept through to completion on my own. It was tough but I am pleased with how it turned out in the end. It was also great to meet people like the 92 year old master carver in the village who created the title sign and to work with the school and various other youth groups in the village. Working with kids is great. They have none of those adult insecurities about 'art' so you don't have to constantly reassure and cajole them into getting involved and then (often) have to do it yourself anyway. 

Full details of the project and how it unfolded are on the website and the Crowhenge Facebook page so will just post some project images here.