A record of walks taken so far [extract]
To the shop, for some messages, to pick up some bits.
Research walks and photograph trips.
Around status, with class, at different times of the day, at the same time each day, crumbling into the earth, falling between cracks, with levels of knowing, bumping against age, seeing time, seeing reason, wondering what I am doing, feeling small, towering, shaded in every colour the sky sent down, carrying the weight of the week and the night before and the day ahead, trying to stay in the minute.
Catching up, falling behind, separation, loss, return, reunion, introduction, end. Coffee jitters and the bone snap strut.
To the pier, to the lighthouse, to the river, to school, to work, to the office, to the studio, to the station, to the stop.
Aimless, purposeful, rushed, distracted, agitated, lazy, laden, a tour, a reorientation, an orientation, stalking, sauntering, stumbling, staggering, swaggering, strolling, ambling, wandering, rambling.
Limping, hobbling, falling, striding, sure-footed and with a destination in sight. Stump.
Slipping, sliding, dashing, darting, prowling, creeping, sneaking, tip-toeing, scuttling, scurrying, loping, skipping, tearing, rushing.
March. Pace. Parade.
Prancing. Hopping. Sashay.
Trudge.
Plodding, wading, trekking, hiking, tearing, meandering, roaming.
[These were not all taken on the same day.]
I went for one, long, ongoing walk, broken up into repetitive cycles. Sleep in the clothes ready for the morning or let it pile up to forget. Alarm, set, rise, lock, go, go, go, turn back, go, go, go, go, step back, sit. Stretch. Let sit. Let settle. Interview again. Find words and rhythms and motivation. Invocation to clear stagnation. Curse belief and salvage it. Thank goodness for the daily. Get it all out and get it all down. This time last year not imagining this time this year, this time looking back but seeing the lines coming up a little stronger today than before. The lines there already and being revealed, the lines being made and forged down, the lines being raised up and beamed. From mind how you go and go easy to keep on keeping on and the document between. This time the thing left behind picked up by gulls or crows, cleaned by street cleaners, eaten by foxes or fish or rats. This time the desperation, the end of the old night, the beginning of the new night, the holiday and the working day, the system and the taught, the obligation and the free-as-a-bird, the going somewhere and the going to get out.
The next step [directions]
Each colour is a score (layer two). Walk with the colour you choose and tell its story. Find it in the walk you make and share it with the appropriate audience. This will be the third layer. How many layers can be built on the already-there and the conjuring-up? Consider the inheritance or responsibility; consider the burden or prompt.
Dusty pink
Cushioned, kept warm, protected, kept cool, to hide, to cover, to dream, to hope, to cry, to send the goodnight message and to receive others, to leave and to return, the time between falling and rising, the most open you can be while shutting off.
Orange
The contradiction of invisible neon, to be passed over, to receive snide judgement, to pick up what others have left behind, to reflect, to whistle, to clean, to slot in between, to keep safe, stark against the pale morning, neither soft nor hard, power, stand-by. Brown
Connected to orange and implicit, complicit in an assumption, dry, fast, holding, to give, to receive the knocks, to cover, to form, dragging, burying, to recover, taking the invisible knock, mundane, not the choice but the one we can rely on, never still.
Blue
Beating, washing, swallowing, empty, full of joy and wonder, to punish, to perspire, to expose, to be the only thing left we all see, the round way back, ‘youth’, magnified inquiry, where did that time go?, cloth, level, surface skimming gloss, stain.
Grey
The regular, the moment before the total release, agony, comfort, feather, to allow, to forgive, the very present, everything, the season of work, sack, the dreaded middle, ascent and descent, float, distillation, often, either attraction or repulsion, the top. Mauve
Bookends but one shorter than the other, infinite, to glow, the chase, jacket, an embarrassment, a mistake, reason, the intended, the edge of a burning, folded, emerge, glisten, not fading but the other side of what that could be, the transitional curve.
Grass-green
Stuffed, trim, to border and line the edges, the border, a border, firmly with a point in the centre, different for every blade, fissure, micro, misinterpreted, mouth, a one-word answer because I do not speak the language to make small talk, retreat, hold, grant.
Navy
Meaning business, cover-up, before and after, go at it, something overlooked in the mid region, pit, to search, if only like this every day, curl, window, mobile, to get going, to sit and submerge, both chill and kindle, boom, the underside, obligation, foundation.
Peach
Grind, ground, sand, shell, claw, bite, beak, fin, find, whisper, leak, tear, pace, flit, pulse, turn, slab, slot, pebble, word, born, reborn, glint, glide, glib, email, end papers, quilt, pad, avoid, pinch, hand, rest, float, ripe, fresh, dust, powder, eye, glass, through, close. Black
Comfort, breath, to breathe, to disclose, to feel, touch, tactile, out of the end, into the next, circle, bag, embedded, call-and-response, call in the dark, a humming noise, revving, blink, a long sigh, to tend to, daily check-in, not response, waiting, arriving.
Yellow
Growth, sustained beyond what was meant, a letter, a visual echo but not a reflection, fuzz, forgotten, I tried to recall it but I can’t, the inner version of peach, chair, incoming, string, lead, light, stem, sipping steam, building up to the lights, finally, following that.
White
Haze, I can hear it but I can’t see it, you’ll have to imagine a succession, an inheritance, the inevitable, everywhere, trace, skimming, not that again, blaze, locked, feed, to press, the press, ajar, groan, shield, withhold, brace, to withstand or to weather, the stain.
Tag Location: Scheveningen & The Hague, The Netherlands
Tag Score: engage with strata
The starting point is always a routine.
I walked every morning at sunrise; a shifting time from somewhere in the hour of 8am during the winter to just after 5am in the summer.
I walked through rain, hail, snow, wind, sun, and sleet.
I walked to the same end point -the end of a jetty on the north harbour- but the route varied, determined by my mood and the weather.
I walked alone, but there are always others; outdoor gym classes, street cleaners, construction workers, joggers, other walkers, surfers, swimmers, early-to-workers, stock-loaders, shop-openers, tram drivers, dog owners, cruisers, and users.