Bethan Clarke - These Church-Way Paths to Glide
Through the church-way paths to glide,
The ghost of a mother hides,
At Maggy’s Lonning the mourners start,
The Ling Fell gales the grasses part,
Looked on by the giants of John’s ancient trees,
A lone coffin rest stares at the leaves,
Fields of green is where the last path lies,
Allowing the spirits still to glide.
These Church-Way Paths to Glide is influenced by the idea of temporal landscape. The project studies the corpse paths of Cumbria: they represent how the landscape shapes us as much as we shape it, as paths are physical markers on the land created by the dweller.
The Cumbrian corpse roads or “church-ways” are ancient paths clothed in folklore. Stories of spirits and ghosts glide through these paths. The existence of these routes goes back to the medieval times where they provided a means for transporting coffins to cemeteries with burial rights. In my work, I try to show the subtle human involvement within this environment to weave a story that explores the notions of a changed landscape through the act of dwelling.
Myth, stories and history all contribute greatly to the perceptions of those who experience land-scape. Through art, poetry and lived experience, we create a story around the places in which we live.
A story is a way of both interacting and perceiving the landscape. Rather than masking historical events, stories draw attention to them. Through my work, I seek to demonstrate the complexity, temporality and poetic nature of landscape.
These Church-Way Paths to Glide is my own woven tapestry to help guide an audience into history through photographic means. By mimicking the mystery and myth that clothe the landscape of these paths, I am contributing to the inevitable changes and shifts that mark out the landscape’s temporality.