Traces retraced

Walking in a Wiltshire Lane I came across a strange shape hanging quite high in a hedge. It turned out to be a sheep's pelvis which had been partially butchered. I found it a rather wonderful shape and was also mystified as to how it got to be there.

It was a bit smelly!

Here was the trace of a sheep, an animal bred for meat and slaughtered by humans. How and why had it returned to the field?

I took it home, removed a bit of gristle, scrubbed and bleached the bone, dried it out and, still intrigued, sprayed it silver.

The trace of the smell has finally disappeared as has the trace of silver aerosol through the air.

Spiders made by tracing in the old school way, rubbing pencil marks into paper. More spiders made by stitching threads to mimic webs on the spider's body. Graphite on the fingers blotches onto the tracing paper, fainter and fainter images

I try to understand Timothy Morton's description as a bit like the spiders. He says: "if things are intrinsically withdrawn, irreducible to their perception or reactions or uses, they can only affect each other in a strange region out in front of them, a region of traces and footprints."

Anselm Kiefer. The Elegant Universe

Artist unknown Nicola Bealing Cat's Cradle

Mona Hatoum Remains to be Seen

Brancusi Simplicity is complexity resolved

Traces Retraced

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