04 . 21

dart ochres : april ‘21

Caroline Ross writes: “These earths are from Devon in SW England, from the watershed of the River Dart. When I was about to go and gather them, a third lockdown was announced in England, and so I could not travel more than 8km from home. Two friends in the area, Anja and Nina, agreed to gather the ochres for me and to send or deliver them. At home I dried, loosely ground and sieved the pigments; they did not need washing. These iron rich earths are typical of the Totnes area.

Dart Gold Ochre was gathered for Caroline Ross by her friend Anja Byg. Anja has written the following about her foraging experience:

“That which should have been down is up; that which should have been hidden has been exposed. The tree once provided shade and shelter, transported water and minerals and transformed carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy and oxygen. It connected the above and the below in the manner of all great trees, and was itself connected with fungi, microbes and other trees in ways that mostly escape our above-ground oriented senses. Now the tree’s body is lying horizontally along the forest floor, dead, no longer an axis between heaven, earth and the down below, toppled over by a storm. Even so, the tree is still giving to the forest, is still part of the community: the fungi growing out of its wood, the beetles and other insects chewing their way through its stem, and I, who walk by, and you, who receives this.

When the force of the wind against the stem grew too much and the roots could no longer anchor the tree in the ground they took with them part of the soil in which they had embedded themselves. A slice of what was ground beneath our feet has been thrust upward into the sky, a latticework of roots suspending stones and clay, the holder and the held having changed roles and positions.

Cold hands now scoop some of the clay into a bag, feet move the body into a house, then onto a train. While the tree sleeps on in the forest and is slowly transformed into the lives of other creatures the clay travels to a big city, gets handed over, sorted, repackaged, sent off to another part of the world. It continues its journey, transforms into something else, travels to your hand. Where will it go from here?”

contributor : caroline ross

Caroline Ross lives on a boat on the River Thames in England. A finder of things and a forager by inclination, she makes art and art materials from the natural world and things humans discard or discount. She teaches people how to draw, to make paint from earth, ink from galls, pens from feathers.