I am taken with our fieldwork task - to create a cave painting. We need to think about materials: pigments and brushes, possible locations and the property of their surfaces, and of course the image or ‘trope’.
My thinking is very much about place. The MA is generated by and taught from Dartington. I am partaking online. There is an irony in this - despite many of my ancestors - on both sides of my family - coming from Buckfastleigh and Totnes, I am now living in London. George Lane, Catford, Lewisham. While my great great grandfather made paper by the Dart, and his son enumerated later censuses in the nearby town, I can’t at the moment, scour under the local oak trees for Gall Balls, or search for the pigment of my ancestors. My place is now Lewisham. Here I have worked and socialised. Here we have connected - myself and my partner and children - to various networks and projects. Locally I have left bits of skin and sinew, varicose veins, wisdom teeth, ear wax and corns with the local hospital, dentists, chiropodists and specsavers - but you probably didn’t need to know that.
The image must be local. The image must be of Lewisham.
In our borough a white stag appears.
It has splendid antlers, stature and presence.
You glimpse it drinking from the Quaggy or the Ravensbourne.
Look carefully and you see it hiding beneath the South Circular.
It peeks out from the low hanging branches by Lewisham station.
It stares with majesty across the ancient common of Blackheath.
