BARE //
Horton In Ribblesdale
Pen-y-ghent
Walking in Exploration
10/4/17
Duration 3 hours
Elevation: 694 m
We climbed the stony face of Pen-y-ghent; the smallest of the three fells in the Yorkshire three peaks.
When reaching the top we explored the environment with performative acts of standing, carrying and laying, responding to the landscape.
The act of climbing Pen-y-ghent allowed us to understand the environment in greater detail increasing our knowledge of the area.
Our round trip of Pen-y-ghent was our first exploration of the area around Horton in Ribblesdale. We explored the winding path of the fell, the walled fields and rock ledges of the sides of Pen-y-ghent.
The top of Pen-y-ghent was a powerful experience, the panoramic view of the areas allowed us to witness the lay of the land with the many fells and valleys surrounding us. The land rose and fell like draped, loose cloth.
Exploration of the landscape
The land at very top had a strange quality of safety, the ground was soft and forgiving and felt inviting as a performer. However the weather seemed to be volatile and prone to sudden change. It was clear that the top of Pen-y-ghent had its own climate and environment.
Our descent of Pen-y-ghent would lead us through marshland, toward Hull Pot, the site of most of our acts of performance.
The River at Hull Pot
Acts of performance within the environment
10/4/17
11/4/17
Duration 6 hours
We explored the platforms of the river running down towards Hull Pot, we responded to this environment generating material in response to the death of author Virginia Woolf,
The death of Woolf layered with the environment surrounding Horton in Ribblesdale was the main focus for our exploration
We explored the river in relation to our own personal response and to that of the tragic death of Woolf.
When walking within water, there is something unnerving about being unsure what will meet your feet as you place them down. The water may not be deep, but the flooring surface is still unknown. This performance piece, for me, quickly became about trust. I had to trust my feet to support me and find safe ground to keep me level. I had to trust those around me to guide me from point A to point B - Imogen Sutherland
Alex's response
‘I responded to what was around me, the colour and texture of the reeds that grow by the side of the river appealed to me, I chose to use them to adorn my face and head, I wanted to see the river through the shadows of the reeds partially covering my eyes. Feel the natural material against my skin. The light at this time was very important, the sun illuminated the once dark, cold and stone covered landscape. It was a time of calm with in the environment.
Isa raised her head. The words made two rings, perfect links that floated them, herself and Haynes, like two swans downstream. But his snow white breast was circled with a tangled and dirty buckwheat; and she too, in her webbed feet was entangled, by her husband the stockbroker. Sitting on her three-cornered chair she swayed, with her dark pigtails hanging, and her body like bolster in her faded dressing gown.
These poetic words are taken from Virginia Woolf’s final novel 'Between the acts'. This resonated with the environment.
Alex's response continued
The second day of exploration at Hull pot, the environment was different, the landscape was harsh, the wind was strong and the temperature lower. I felt the need to resist and struggle against the landscape bearing my all against it. My explorations involved walking upstream against the current of the water dragging rocks behind me, feeling the weight of their resistance as I travelled against the wind and water. This exploration was all about the power of the natural landscape, a power that can be dangerous and unpredictable, where the struggle against it can be futile.
In my exploration, I performed the task of dragging a large stone tethered to a rope upstream. I exerted the force of me walking forward on the stone allowing it to lodge in the uneven surface of the river. I was not forcing the stone but allowing the drive of my body forward to pull the stone behind me. I was travelling at a pace that the stone allowed. As the gradient of the river became steeper more force was needed to perform the task, the speed of the exercise increased with the pressures and certainties of the changing landscape of the river.
The weight of stone was of interest to me after our exploration of carrying weight in other works, a now liking to the death of Woolf.
Imogen's response
Travelling the same path doesn’t automatically mean travelling the same route. Both internally and externally we can take different journeys travelling repeatedly between the same points. I explored this idea on the river side on Pen-y-ghent. During a time of personal performance, responding to the same text and the same environment we created three separate performance moments. I personally was exploring the walking process of Virginia Woolf’s journey to the River Ouse, Sussex, in 1941. Each footstep can allow for a different thought, whether that be a productive thought, a progressive thought or a distractive thought. Either keeping you on your path or straying you away. My walk became a task based exploration of travelling from my chosen two points repeatedly. Eventually adding in the carrying and caring of a stone, taking it from one place and carrying it to the next, with a different stone under-going the opposite journey. Consequently, creating a voyage that stone would not have undertaken if it had not been for my interjection.
James' response
Making our way up the to the top of Pen-Y-Ghent was one of the most toughest walks I have been on to date. It was tiring, physically straining and sometimes long. But the views at the top where breathtaking. A realisation that came out of this walk was natural beauty is all around us in the United Kingdom, it literally on our door step. But because of the society we are currently living in, where we are chasing our favourite celebs to the whites sandy beaches or trying to get the best picture for social media, we never take time out to go visit these places that the UK has to offer. Or when we want a little break or adventure we get on a boat or a plane and travel thousands of miles away.
My intentions for BARE where quite obvious from the start 'make people fall in love with nature again' and show them that we live in a beautiful country, on of the greenest in the world and that they should be proud.
A poetic response to waiting in nature - James
I wait silently on the wooden fence next to the river.
We are in Horton in ribblesdale.
I can here the sound of water peacefully trickling down stream, slow in pace.
The wind, gently kisses my ears and whispers it's tune.
As I wait here to clamber down into the river.
I contemplate my state of mind.
And the fence that I sit on pushes deeper into my bottom, and becomes uncomfortable.
Pins and needles run up my leg, and I begin to loose all feeling.
Far away In the distance I can hear birds call to one another.
The loud calls of grouse over shadow those birds chatter.
And My mind is becoming still.
Yet it is broken up by the clattering of trains and inaudible drilling from the quarry.
A bird lands next to me.
I wait still, calm.
I slow down my breathing.
I can hear the sound of crunching grass as it pulls a worm from the ground, hungrily.
It is joined by another.
I can hear them chatter to one another, a language that I am familiar with but I cannot understand.
A long time has passed.
Maybe 10 minutes maybe 20,
I do not know.
As I have been waiting here for so long.
Waiting amongst nature.
My mind has become empty.
And I have moulded into this fence that I have been siting on for so long.
I have returned back to nature.
The Ribble to Helwith Bridge
Walking in Exploration
11/4/17
Duration 2 hours
We walked the length of the River Ribble from Horton in Ribblesdale bridge to Helwith bridge. We followed the river and experienced the landscape of the surrounding area.
We observed the colour, shape and aesthetic of the river, as well as the three quarries that adorned the face of the fell side adjacent to our route.
Alex's response
This walk through the landscape surrounding Horton, got me thinking about the materials that this landscape is comprised of. Stone dominates the landscape, dark black stone. The fells on either side have dark jagged surfaces, and the water of the river is blackened by the presence of their stone. The peat stained black water of Ribble got me thinking about our purpose for being here to explore the death of the writer Virginia Woolf. Woolf killed herself by putting stones into her overcoat pockets and walking into the river Ouse, Sussex. In our exploration of Horton in Ribblesdale we were layering the story of Virginia’s death onto the landscape around us, in doing so the dark stones and water of our environment seem to resonate with the tragic events of Woolf's death. The death of Woolf was an act that explored the power and danger of the natural environment. By baring myself to the landscape and experiencing standing within the River Ribble on our walk I felt a connection to the harshness and dark nature of the surrounding rugged and unforgiving environment.
In this walk, we explored the journey along the banks of the River Ribble, that runs alongside Horton in Ribblesdale. The route took us the length of the village past the three stone quarries of Hanson Aggregates (slate) and Dry Rigg, Arcow (lime stone). The deep angular steps carved into the face of the fell left behind by the industry that dominates the landscape. This was a landscape of high risings stone fells on either side, dry stone walls made from the same material fencing us in, and large boulders washed down into the base of the valley being slowly eroded by the trickling water is the Ribble. From the paths to the buildings and even the bridge of our destination, stone was the material of construction. We ended our walk at Helwith Bridge a prominent landmark in the valley:
I was told while in Ribblesdale that the bridge was originally built to replace a stepping stone crossing, however, the person who built the bridge enforced a charge so many villages said “to hell with the bridge” and made their own way across, such is the tale of how Helwith bridge got its name. - Alex Kaniewski