"She drew a line in the soil..." This image is of soil, poured onto the gallery floor. It is soil I obtained from the dig underneath the new improved parts of the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. It is soil from the Boudiccan Destruction Layer. A significant strata, a moment captured in time and now hidden under the later layers of the town/city.

 

I carried the bucket of this precious material down the high street, all along the length of the Roman plan of the town. It was heavy, in real terms and in historic. Pregnant with story. 

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I put it down in a fat, red, fire baked path on the floor. I took off my shoes, my socks and I drew a line down the middle of it with my toes. I drew the line with determination and clear intention. I drew the line in memory of her.

 

This is one of the places we can be certain she stood.

This soil is altered in colour if not by her hand, by the words tumbling from her lips. 

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I invited others to walk barefoot on the soil after me, to take a dead-fire walk. To really feel the fact that they were experiencing the first barefoot interactions with that soil since around 60 AD. 

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This is one of the things I have done, at an exhibition I curated and an event that I organised. I have done other things in this context which you can look at a little by following the links below...

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LOST IN WONDERLAND // LEGEND // BORN WITH IT  

UNFAMILIARS // OTHER EVENTS