The human race is weird; we know. The modern world drives us faster and faster and the planet is burning up with humans and their voracious drives. Maybe humanity needs to embrace the slow side; a slower pace of life, mindfulness, slow food, slower talking, slower thinking. That’s not to say that people do take time to integrate slower activities in their daily lives – for example, people do their hour of yoga, or 20 minutes of mindfulness practice as they planned in the diary. Giving very limited time bound permissions to go the slower pace that makes them feel good. But we’ve discovered we are exploring with our art practice something about our interaction with time and the more we engage with our interest, the more in touch with ourselves we become and the slower we go, or rather we pace as feels right in the moment. Not how our ego and brain triggers drive us but how our inner soul beats with the world around it. Of course when you’re in touch inside and outside to the wider Earth, fast is also good too, when it’s the right time. Luxuriously diving into water is not slow. Being on a windy cliff feels fast and exhilarating and is very in touch with our soul and the environment. But with a crazy driven world slow doesn’t get much of a look in.
We started slowing down our work in May this year. Visiting the Preseli hills to find blue stone quarries and stone circles staying in a remotely sited old Welsh cottage just makes you slow. As a result we allowed our inner awareness to tune into the energies on the top of hills, on tumuli, on ancient hillforts, and feeling the amazing energy of stones in stone circles and megalithic quarries. Thats when magic happens.
Earthwaves goes slow
Given the above, we at Earthwaves are relishing the concept of ‘slowness’ in our respective works; as a celebration of it but also as a reaction to the craziness of this ‘fast’ world and its increasingly manic pace.
Mike’s work epitomises slowness – given the media he works in, this is a necessity. Clay takes its time, it will respond as it needs especially when you are making in the studio and feeling how a clay responds to a making approach. The more natural you go in the finding of ceramic materials the slower it is. But Mike has put ceramics on hold whilst many other things, that require their own pace, are going on and focussing on pagan living and making in our Earthwaves work. He has to let himself go into the pace of natural clothing materials and you learn so much about a different way of living which if you don’t resist it with your modern ego allows your soul to breathe, much as our fictional Earthwaves characters Deek and Lan live.
Cold dyeing wool with indigo is slow, vats of urine have to be collected and take a couple of weeks to mature and release the natural chemicals for dyeing. Dye plants take all year to grow and you need to know when to use them, and the “druids” were experts at this, evidence shows us. We have the most wonderful annual cycles in Britain where the position of sun both supports and paces our existence. If you don’t believe us read about latest research on body clocks, or just listen to yourself inside and observe the days, nights and year run its course. Indigo takes some days to dissolve and react in the vat to the chemicals that are released. The weather affects the pace at which this happens. And to know these dyeing processes will all compost and decompose over time, helping to feed into natures life cycles. When Mike is overwhelmed by the demands of a human and modern world, this process of designing within pagan scope, dyeing and making releases a contentment, an inner peace, from this, for Mike, comes all the story writing, thinking and spiritual inspiration in our work.
By contrast, Lance is using ‘slowness’ as a concept in his video work. For the last few years, he has produced pieces on the meditative nature of water; slowed visuals of water, accompanied by appropriately ambient soundtracks created on various apps developed by Brian Eno for the iPad. For inspiration, Lance has referred to works that exemplify slowness; Derek Jarman’s The Angelic Conversation, Tarkovsky’s Stalker and the works of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose Memoria was viewed in Cambridge last year by Mike and Lance.
Lance:
“The primary focus of the works I have recently created are to be meditative – to even nod off to if needed – and to put the viewer in a state of relaxation. I believe they could be projected large scale in a gallery for that purpose. A touchstone for me was Bill Viola’s Five Angels For The Millennium which I saw at Tate Modern back in 2004. The watery images projected on five huge screens had the viewers lying on the floor in a state of meditative calm. That piece has stayed with me ever since and informed a lot of the ‘slow’ pieces I have created since.”
“That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the adrenaline-fuelled blockbuster that stirs the blood! But I relish the balance, the times when it is right to slow right down after a mad rush, to sit and watch the flames on a fire turn solid materials to glittering embers, the crackling of which is accompanied by nothing but the sound of wind in the trees. Hmm, I think I know what my next video project will be…”
To be clear, we at Earthwaves are not promoting the message “slow good, fast bad”. Rather, while acknowledging there is a time to rush there is also equal time to take it right back to a slower pace; to breathe deeply, observe what is around you, take in the glorious sounds of nature. In other words, connect with all the senses you were born with. Taking your foot off the pedal every now and then really does deepen and enrich your life. Trust us.