M a i d e n Ca s t l e , D o r s e t , S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 4
To walk amongst the land like this is a process of reanimation
By enacting a reversal, turning upon the flattening of the land catalysed by
cartographic depictions
To discover Landscape is to draw out the land and its contours,
from the rigidity of cartography
To walk amongst the chalklands,
within networking systems of nature,
and within the interwoven narratives,
of the people who walked there before you
At Maiden Castle we walked around the perimeter of the hill
We could not see all its boundaries
Could not capture in one sight all the places the embankment encroached upon
the sky
Yet as we followed its undulating perimeter
There was a shape appearing in my mind,
its form was coalescing
Drawn out of the flatness of unfamiliarity, unknowing
Knowledges of its past history began to meld with a felt knowledge of the sites
own physicality
I began to carry the shape and breadth of the hillside as I walked,
each turn and indentation in the chalk,
began to craft a lived knowledge
The experience of being there in that moment,
could give life to a new kind of mapping
Acknowledging the space that surrounds you,
conjured the place you carry