Purpose

Material Witness will focus on extreme textile process. Images will be posted here showing the history of my work, new work, developing projects and inspiration.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Solstice

Portal Stonehenge May 2007 photo Tim Hurley

Happy Summer!

I visited Stonehenge with cousins Fiona and Dr. Janet Parrot in early May.

Fiona is an anthropologist and studied the stones for awhile. She described the standing stones as being only one aspect of the site. The site recognised by the British government is very small and focuses on the stones and not on the entire site which appears to include miles of the landscape. They "forgot" to consider the entire landscape and it's importance. The Thatcher government even ran a highway through it.

No one is sure what the stones are for but they have had many uses through time. The landscape has obvious signs of other use. There are what look to be a system of deliberate ditches. The stones themselves appear to have markings and even applied colour in some places. They have been recognized as a holy place and a place of importance for years.

Current romantic fantasy tells little of their true story except for recognition or a faded collective memory that this place was important. The Stones are breathtaking. It is now known that somehow they were brought to the plain from Welsh mountains many miles away. The contrast of the colour of the blue stone columns against the vast, fertile plain creates mystery. The columns sparkle. Sunlight catches in each opening and is almost magnified in intensity.

The Salsbury Plain is spectacular and the landscape can be seen for miles in every direction.
It is clear that there were other structures and that the landscape was used for miles. The wind, which is constant, was almost howling across the landscape when we were there.

Cows chewed grass and cud, traffic rumbled by and history freaks played ancient war games all around us. Roman gladiators, kilted men, women in Medievel garb barely distracted us at all.

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