Ruminate 4 (close up)

Ruminate 4 (close-up) . 2012. Crystal archive digital print, 40x30in

Wild - living independently of man; not domesticated or tame. Growing in a natural state; not cultivated. Uninhabited; desolate. A free natural state of living. Lacking restraint or control.

Tame - changed by man from a wild state into a domesticated or cultivated condition. Not fearful of human contact. Meek or submissive.

Domesticated - to bring or keep (wild animals) under control or cultivation. To adapt to an environment 

Ruminate 4

Ruminate 4. Harris wool strip, pvc artificial leather, galvanised steel.

The landscape, harsh yet fragile, static yet fluid. Shaped by ice, wind and rain. A landscape devoid of trees.

Dominated by rock, peat, bog and water.

Sheep roam. Always on the move. Semi-wild.

Man controls them, marks them, shears them, kills them.

There is tension. 

Tension between the wild and the domesticated, the manmade and the natural.

What is wild, domesticated and tame?

The landscape is a complex interaction between the natural processes and human activity.

 Push, pull, resist, support. Fluid, temporary, adjacent.

"Holding to the ground is not that important if the ground can be reached and abandoned at whim, in a short time or in no time. On the other hand, holding too fast, burdening one's bond with mutually binding commitments, may prove positively harmful and the new chances crop up elsewhere." (Zygmunt Bauman, 'Liquid Modernity', 1999 )