In the summer of 2008 I discovered a
strange site: a ring of white ash encircling a rock, hidden under an Arbutus
tree in Mt. Douglas Park, Victoria, BC. The letters "AL" were freshly cut into one of the tree's branches.
The topography of the scene was a fascinating
contradiction. Ascertaining the details of the aftermath of this rite required
getting so close to the cremated ashes as to seem in intimate private contact
with another person, and yet the site of it had been so chosen that the view
one looked out upon was still vast and expansive. One was somehow looking out
and looking in almost simultaneously.
A further point of interest to this
memorial site was that the view from it included the literal lookout spot on
the top Mt. Douglas. This one private lookout spot was offering a view of
another, public one, which is frequented by an unending stream of human figures
who gaze out from it in every different direction, totally unaware that from
this lookout spot, they themselves are being symbolically observed. The
numerous and transitory observers of the one, as opposed to the symbolic sacred
one of the other, represent two very different dichotomies
which are nonetheless symbiotically interconnected.
The following imagery and video clips are documentation of the original site and observations made that
will eventually become a video/installation for my AIR 2013. Updates, imagery,
more video, sounds will be uploaded as the project progresses.
Ring of Ash. Ceremonial site found in March 2008. |
June 2008 |