BODILY KNOWING

The artist as Wanderer above a Sea of Fog. His footing is firm. We see his body only from behind, as steadfast in its stance, as the rock on which he stands – its solidity matching that of the mountain itself. His step has taken him to the edge of the crag, but his awareness ranges beyond it, not just through his gaze, invisible from behind, but through his whole bodily comportment - his stand. He perceives not just with his eyes but with his feet, which feel the mountain beneath him. In its black garb, the man’s body stands out from the mountain. Yet man and mountain, whilst distinct, stand together in inseparable relation. Each speaks to the other through its bearing and comportment. The configuration of the jutting crag comports itself in a way that fully receives the step and stand of the man and bears him in his comportment. The man’s stick is not a man-made prop supporting him but a token of his manful respect for that which truly supports him – the mountain. Through the stick, man and mountain touch one another in knowing acknowledgement of each other. The man’s head reaches into the skies, topped by what appears like a solid flame of windswept hair. But the darkening red-brown tones of this solidified flame match the colours of the mountain itself. The man’s head is a veritable microcosm of the planet topped by a miniature mountain range of hair. In this way the artist tells us that he - the man - has not merely got his head in the skies, but also knows himself as mountain and earth. How? Through his body, whose black outwardness tells us of its concealed inwardness, which "is an awareness" linking man, earth and sky. The white mist is its mysterious substantiality made visible, and the mystery that man and mountain meditate together.

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