Identity, Isolation and Permenance...

Simple Conceptual drawing in HB pencil

The notion of using Dunstanburgh as a backdrop to illustrate the concept of identity and isolation, together with the expectation of the sea to wash away any temporarily rendered images of faces I intended to paint onto the large spherical boulders found there (I shall refer to these as beech boulders, to distinguish them from any other stones or pebbles of this region), provides a wonderful allegorical metaphor of the ephemeral nature of identity.  - Not just in terms of the short timescales of the tide washing away the identity of the faces through the sea regularly rising and falling twice every 24 hours, but also on the longer term view of identity, with the ever-present reminder of the ruins of Dunstanburgh behind the works, reminding us that over the last 1000 years the castle's original identity has been worn away stone by stone, either by human interference (i.e. removing the dressed ashlars and stones to build alternative structures or even other edifices with their own iconic identity, possibly, such as Lord Armstrong's rebuilding of Bamburgh Castle a short drive up the coast).  This concept, interestingly, was underlined by a lecture from Spencer Roberts which ostensibly discussed or place to view the universe, from the macro level to the micro level, - from the infinitely sub-atomic size to the infinitely huge scale of the universe and beyond.  Both are encapsulated in identity which is in constant play with time itself.

Close-up Conceptual drawing, 2B Graphite Pencil & Water

This sense of timescale and it's effects on identity is then brought into another context, of identity being a transient state, via the possible proposed work at Dunstanburgh, through the actual beech boulders' own physical identity, altering over the millennium through the erosion of friction by the gentle rubbing against each other and the effects of the wind, sea and rain.

This in itself is not dissimilar to our own encapsulated story of existence, that being completely transient, and our identity being 'weathered' and worn through our short lifetime on this earth.  This is an elegant image of our existence in relation to nature, time and space.