Fife Psychogeography – Page 7 – Murdo Eason

At the hinterland of Hinterland

through the darkness

silent pilgrims

a procession of light

at the threshold of sight

water weaves through

forest murmurs

material tracings

interior auras

angles open

to the moon

stacked sounds

in flickering windows

a chorus in walls

trumpet of light

in the hidden corner

beyond the shadows

new beginnings

a statement of intent

≈≈≈

Hinterland, took place over the period 18 – 27 March 2016 at Kilmahew/St Peters, near Cardross. The pioneering, environmental arts organisation, NVA, conceived a site-specific intervention on the abandoned modernist ruin of St Peter’s Seminary, and surrounding landscape, as part of a long-term project to re-imagine and bring part of the building back into functional use as an arts venue. St Peter’s Seminary was designed by Isi Metzstein and Andy MacMillan of the architectural practice Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. The building opened in 1966 as a training college for Roman Catholic priests, but by the late 1980s, dwindling numbers of priesthood recruits led to the building being abandoned and falling into a ruinous state. Architecturally, the building was heavily influenced by Le Corbusier and it is widely acknowledged as a modernist building of international significance.

Cut Curve Circle

the curve

…..and call of

……….the coastline

a cellular circle

……….an expanding

…………………….world

Now playing: The Incredible String Band – ‘A Very Cellular Song’ from The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.

As For the Sea

As for the sea. The sea is impossible to believe. Only by imagining it can you manage to see its reality

Clarice Lispector

With one step, a stream is crossed

an eye on the upland hill.

Nomadic waters falling

gathering, descending,

dreaming of the open sea.

Imagine:

The sea as a source of comfort

The sea as a site of desire

The sea as a skin of violence

We can imagine into being

red diamonds. Criss-crossing

but never containing

the sea

Imagine if the sea was all we had

As if crawling on surface tension

a skeletal remnant, ghost

of the Great War.

Now, a living sanctuary – seabirds

come, seabirds go.

Imagine a sea-skating insect – hatched

from a Miyazaki film.

Imagine the sea rising to bleed into the sky.

What about us?

Where will we stand

When the ink smudged clouds

Fall into the sea?

Flotsam & jetsam

Plastic shards

and dead wood.

Between high tide

and low tide

A little more

short of breath.

Photographs taken from Carlingnose Point, North Queensferry, Limekilns and Crombie on the Fife Coast.

Now playing: Sandy Denny/Fotheringay – The Sea

Reading at DCA in April + Book Review

David-Harding,-Public-Art-for-Glenrothes,-1970s,-photograph-by-Peter-Goldsmith-(2)_444_300_70 — photograph by Peter Goldsmith

Murdo Eason of the Fife Psychogeographical Collective will be reading from the recently published From Hill to Sea, Dispatches from the Fife Psychogeographical Collective. at Dundee Contemporary Arts on Thursday 14th April at 19.00. The event is free but please book in advance.

Copies of From Hill to Sea are now available in the DCA bookshop.

The new exhibition at DCA is Grey Gardens. Featuring contemporary and archive photography, scale models and sculptures, Grey Gardens explores how architects and artists have tried to harmonise their use of concrete with natural landscapes from the 1950s to the present day.

The exhibition traces a line from Scottish modernist buildings by Morris and Steedman and Peter Womersley to the work of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa and the fantastical Mexican concrete garden Las Pozas, created by Edward James.

Scottish town art also features, from Brian Miller’s work in Cumbernauld to David Harding’s creations for Glenrothes. These unique environments will be revealed through photography and video from Guido Guidi, Colin McLean, Amanda Holmes and Avery Danziger.

Set alongside these will be works by artists Neville Rae, Smith/Stewart and Martin Boyce, who won the Turner prize in 2011 and whose work DCA curated for the Venice Biennale in 2009.

Full details here

Book Review

A review of From Hill to Sea has appeared on Metal and Dust.

We have only just become aware of this excellent site which explores hidden geographies, unexplored landscapes and unusual spaces.

Above the City: Leaving / Returning

a city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time

Patrick Geddes

and the resourceful creatures see clearly

that we are not really at home

in the interpreted world

Rainer Maria Rilke – The Duino Elegies

≈≈≈

Above the city

as if the cloak

of air, on wings,

weighs too heavy.

A need to

take flight,

defy gravity

soar, for

a moment,

and return.

Photographs taken looking towards the roof of the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 6th February 2016.

Watching the cycle of leaving and returning. Leaving and returning.

Now playing: Grasscut – Everyone Was a Bird.

From Hill to Sea – Book Update

From Hill to Sea: Dispatches from the Fife Psychogeographical Collective, 2010 – 2014 is published by Bread and Circuses Publishing.

After a successful launch at the Edinburgh Independent & Radical Book Fair, copies of the book are now available from Word Power bookshop in Edinburgh and by mail order. See the Publications page here.

‘Keep walking intently’

Takehisa Kosugi’s text score Theatre Music.

Text score from Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Second edition, 1999).

Now playing: Taj Mahal Travellers – July 15, 1972.

The Foreshore Shaman

Enter through yellow eye

into bird mind of

the foreshore shaman.

≈

Come inhabit the spaces

between water

earth and sky.

How long have you got?

I’m just biding my time

sitting still, tuning in.

Listen to the wind;

wave pulse, lapping

on stone. Feel, sun

and moon movements.

Observe worlds formed

in rock pools, constellations

of barnacles, breathe in

sea salt air.

I see through reflection

beyond the mirror.

Sense the movement

that precedes

the moment, to

step forward

stop time, poised

with calm intent

to pierce the void.

In one movement:

from the depths

a fish –

……………….Ensō !

≈≈≈

Heron Shaman encountered at Black Sands, Aberdour, Fife, Saturday, 16th January 2016.

Now playing: David Behrman – On the Other Ocean

In Still Winter Air

Gothic lungs, breathe

still, winter air

Arms outstretched

movement in stasis

a silent cry

sounded in ink

Now Playing: Laura Cannell – ‘Banshee’ from Swooping Talons Remixes (Charles Hayward and Merlin Nova remix).

Aberdour, Fife, 16th January, 2016.

Under a full sky

At the end of a walk
.
a congregation cry
under a full sky
.
Anticipating
the snow arriving
.
(Now drifting down)

Somewhere close to Aberdour, Fife, late afternoon, 16th January 2016.

Now playing: Hans Joachim Roedelius & Leon Muraglia – ‘Gently Falling Snow’ from Ubi Bene.