I often go walking, either in my
locality or on trips and travels around the UK.
On my walks I like to explore the places I am passing through and will
often end up on paths with no idea of where I’m going or what I’m going to
find. Mostly I find dead ends or
industrial estates, but sometimes I find real gems of places. These places need not be beautiful or even of
any historic significance, as I have often found inspiration in the decay of
old industry, in the brittle stone of crumbling graveyards or the low hum and
concrete landscape of a nuclear power station.
However, sometimes it is good just to lose yourself in the beauty of
nature - on a beach, on a cliff walk, in a woodland, on a moor or up in the
hills and mountains.
During the time of the Covid 19
pandemic, I got to thinking about the places I have walked around and the
places I have visited. Many times, I
have picked up a pebble or a shell or something else as a memento of that
place, as many others do. What do I
leave of myself in this landscape though?
Nothing other than the passing shadow of my having been there. But how often is what we leave behind us the
toxic trash of the brief time we enjoyed in that place? The plastic water bottle, the crisp packets,
the sandwich wrappers, the juice cans, etc.
The detritus we are all use to seeing on our beaches and in our beauty
spots. I wondered if there was a way I
could leave behind a little of myself, something I had made, something neutral
that would become part of that landscape, decay back into it, or even become a
memento for someone else who had visited that spot. I then came up with the idea of leaving
behind something made of clay. Something
small and unobtrusive.
I was pondering on what I could make,
especially given my limited skills, while I was out for a walk along the coast. My route took me past an old church and there
I wandered through the graveyard. Many
of the graves dated from the sixteenth century.
As I wandered around, I noticed that several had very primitive carvings
of skulls on them that were really nothing more than an oval head, two round
holes for eyes, a triangle for a nose and a line for the mouth. Even I could make something that basic. Thus, the idea for the Skulferatus was born.
The Skulferatus are all made of clay
using a few simple implements to create the eye sockets, nose and mouth. I experimented with a few looks and found the
one pictured below worked the best.
Once made the Skulferatus were left to
dry before being fired in a kiln at 1200℃.
This hardens the clay and means they are now basically stone.
Now that the Skulferatus have been
created I will be occasionally leaving them at places I visit. When I do this, I will take a photograph of
the area, a photograph of the Skulferatu and a screenshot from Google Maps,
showing the location it was left. These
photographs, along with the GPS coordinates will be posted on this blog and
also on Instagram.
Thanks to Esther Cohen and Ronnie
Fulton from Tantallon Arts and Crafts Studios https://tantallonstudios.com for
providing support in creating the Skulferatu pieces.
All articles and photographs on this blog are copyright of © Kevin Nosferatu, unless otherwise specified.
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