This reading project reflects an overriding memory that much of the drama in Hardy’s novels occurs out of doors, on paths, tracks and crossroads. My distilled version therefore, reduces the narrative to Tess’s forward movement through the landscape of the novel. These fragments are symbolic of my memory of the text whilst simaltaneously offering an alternate reading of Hardy’s tragic story. Now Tess’s movement’s, through tracks, crooked lanes, roads, paths, ascents and descents, appear connected as one long and exhausting journey. see full text
My scheme is illustrated by a series of photopolymer gravures and I decided to locate the terrain of the novel through mapping my own movements around England and Wales. And this seeking out of an imagined but potentially real landscape seems to have taken on a life of its own.
These images are created through revisiting landscapes known to me and I use a 5x4 camera set to my eye level to document the ground and the path before me, using the same aperture for each location and then the same process for each image in the series, I enjoy both the variety and repetition in the project.
