I have become interested in cairns and megaliths for their spiritual and story telling properties which reveal innate aspects of human nature. The act of balancing stones to create these monuments has been used across the world as a way of mark making for travelling, for worship and shine building and even to predict astronomical activity.
The balancing of stones in this way has definite aesthetic properties as they create a sense of balance and harmony and, I feel, give a visual representation and connection with the invisible forces of gravity on our planet. Furthermore the act of constructing these forms takes patience, commitment and a human investment.
In order to understand these better, I went to Bowland Forest to create my own in a isolated natural setting. The first thing I noticed about this process was the physical strain it took as the stones needed to create the larger forms are very heavy. This therefore made me consider how this act could not be a simple mark making activity as it takes significant time and denotation as the act of balancing each stone also takes an investment. I then considered the making of these objects as a form of ritual as you collect repetitively collect and stack the stones.
However what I find most profound is the sense that these structures have reoccurred though history in many different locations and arises ideas of creation and spirituality and an innate part of human life. And as they continue to be reproduced they become a marker which allows others to join a legacy which leaves their story to be told to others who come across their cairn.
Having researched these further I looked at historical literature about the structures and objects of similar origins. A point I found very interesting from this was the aspects of extreme danger which people would have had to put themselves at risk of in order to create these as some appeared to not be made from any stones, but stones which would have had to be quarried for. Therefore it was thought that this was to get the most beautiful and precious stones which suggests a deeper investment than a purely practical one.
A paper on Cairns which I have found very interesting is Paul Basu ‘Cairns in the landscape, Migrant stones and Migrant stories in Scotland and its diaspora.’.
Basu describe how cairns are;
"also ‘living’ monuments that grow and reduce over time as people contribute additional stones or carry away existing ones; sometimes – as one of my examples will show – they may also ‘die’ and become mere memories themselves. Indeed, cairns are ‘material metaphors’ par excellence: conglomerate forms that combine fragments into greater wholes, but where
their parts do not lose their fragmentary character. Thus the individual stones of a cairn may each have their own migratory biographies, carrying with them particular essences or associations, reflecting, for instance, where the stones were sourced or who placed them and why.”
Andy Goldsworthy is a artist who has replicated these in his works which engage directly with natural world and the environment. However I will no use this as a reference to my work as I am using the idea and form of the cairns purely as my inspiration and a starting point. My building and reproduction of them is purely for investigative purposes, not to bare any resemblance to the work of Goldworthy.