The rock clutched the black mass
A piece of petrified wood, suspended in the streamway
–
Tethered to the entrance, succumbing to the earth,
A remnant of the surface.
The Underground Landscape– An isolated space
The underground is a disconcerting space, distant and foreign from the surface we inhabit. I am concerned with trying to portray the experience of the landscape, depicting the experience beyond sight. It is peculiar describing the underground as a landscape, due to its alien, foreign nature as an interior space. There is no sky and ground of a traditional landscape, the architectural space is encapsulated in rock. Due to this unusual structure and navigation, the underground is isolated from society and the outside. This has a similar effect as humans in an isolated space. The underground is disorientating as it alters your vision, hearing and sense of direction, due to the limited light and the echoing of the walls. This disorientation and isolation is shared through mythical stories about caves. In particular, the echoes of the water running through the rock distorting the sound to emulate cackles of mythical creatures. I aim to depict the disoriented vision of the underground, by layering imagery and erasing it. [My practice focuses on the uncanny and altered reality and memory of the space and experience rather than a documentation.]
In the isolation of the underground I aim to depict and examine the landscape as an unconscious representation of self.