Rain Swollen Manuscript [Unknown] (14/12/21)
/ The Music of What's Not There (Photo Album)
Photos taken before & after swimming in the River Dart (15/01/22 - 15/02/22)
/ Voices of the River
/ Sketches
Filmed during a trip to County Kerry, Southern Ireland (12/21)
/ Reflections
In Module 1, ‘Oral Thought’, I drew a series of ‘blind self-portraits’ completed over 30 days: https://gabrielthomasstevens.wixsite.com/driftingcloudpress/post/oral-thought-1. The drawings became an exploration of the self in relation to the group. From the drawings I was surprised to find how many variations of the self exist behind a single ‘I’.
Before Module 3, ‘Glorious Distortions’ began, I was visiting the River Dart on a daily basis. What would it be like to capture a self-portrait of the Dart?
When you slip into the river
the river slips into you
And when you take your leave
each to turn your separate ways
in this parting
there is never fully a departing
for in the instance of your embrace
a song is sung
that never can be
fully undone.
- A poem from my father (20/01/22)
I began to take a series of self-portraits before and after entering the river. The first was taken with my eyes shut (at approximately 6:55 am). The second with my eyes open (at approximately 7:20 am) - ref. photos above. A collection of prose-poems forming the connective tissue between each photo:
Sat at the desk, I tried to write from my cold toe; from the itchy skin beneath my left wrist; or the wet hair stuck to the nape of my neck.
By writing about the journey from the door to the Dart (twenty minutes each day, for ten days), slowly an expression of the river began to take shape. Tangential thoughts running off in different directions. Repetitions and spelling mistakes littered across the page.
I took some time away from the writing. Made a film titled, ‘Sea Ear’, in response to a trip to Southern Ireland; read ‘Over Nine Waves’ by Marie Heaney, and continued the practise of photographing myself before and after each swim.
During the day, I would often visit the world I was writing about. Each time I went, more of this small corner of Devon revealed itself.
However, when I returned to the writing, I felt frustrated at the shortcomings of my work. What of the world outside? What of the sunlit forest? What of… I continued to walk. Solvitur ambulando. Solvitur ambulando.
One day, the Japanese word, yūgen (幽玄) came to mind. A word that cannot be directly translated into English, but roughly means ‘hidden beauty’. Geese flying above the trees. Moon hidden behind a cloud. The hull of a canoe reflected in water. These are but a few examples of yūgen. Perhaps if I keep writing, more of the unknown will reveal itself… Perhaps if I keep writing, an expression of the Dart might just grace my pen…
/ Reading List
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