"Imagine great monotonous stretches of uncharted, unnamed territory, imagine vast
eroded plateaus and post glacial beaches. The time is the boreal period, the beginnings of
the archaic times called Atlantic.... The earthscape is mineral, dominated by great stone
blocks fallen from obscure disasters, and by scatterings of fragmented rock. In such a
context, geometry (a point, a line a circle) can be a kind of salvation, especially if you
can feel that you are establishing a correspondence with what you haven't yet called a
cosmos." Kenneth White 1995 (from "Calanais")
Petrified Garden is an exhibition of new work by photo
artist Mark Johnston. It takes as its theme the numerous prehistoric stone circles,
avenues, tombs and alignments which are found in Scotland and throughout Northern Europe.
These first attempts to establish reference points on the earth are the ossified evidence
of what was once an established culture and the earliest known forms of religious art in
the landscape.
The show consists of montages, composed of photographs of the horizon taken from a
height of 6.5 meters. These become templates for our perception because they depict the
horizon as a circle, and we are always at the centre. And while visually aware of our
surroundings we are not always concious of ourselves as being there; so it is a circle
with a hole in the middle. That is the human condition.
The line of inquiry concentrates on the fact that that most of these monuments show a
design theme and a variation - a circle with projections : this could be called a
template. Instead of looking for a functional cause for these monuments it is possible
that they are pictures of something. Some possible inspirations are: Total and annular
eclipses of the sun. The diamond ring effect is seen clearly in the Aberdeenshire stone
circles. The stone rows in the Calanais site may be the streamers of ionised particles
seen only during totality. Aurora Borealis, the Northern lights when seen directly
overhead look like radiating lines of coloured lights, shooting out from a blank centre.
Comets and meteor storms. Comets which cross earths orbit may have impressed or
terrorized. Monuments such as Callanish I, Stonehenge, Avebury and Wormy Hillock show
remarkable similarities to comets when viewed from above. Meteorite storms which are
debris left behind by comets also appear to radiate from a central point in the sky.
In all these possiblities the underlying force is the solar wind, a stream of ionised
particles heading away from the sun. Our perceptions and cosmology are intimately bound
together, and discovering the meaning of lost cultures may only require the simple
question: How did they look at their surroundings.
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Bennachie
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Christmas Day (Golden Square, Aberdeen)
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Clava Cairn (Inverness)
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Cothiemuir
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Williamston Crop Circles
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Oronsay Beach (Isle of Lewis)
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Temple Wood (Argyle)
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Uffington Horse (Wiltshire)
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Waylands Smithy (Wiltshire)
Petrified Garden is available as a touring exhibition from An Lanntair. The hirefee is £750.00 + VAT + one way
transport + insurance while in the recieving venues custody. This includes
exhibition delivery, posters and preview cards for overprint.
Touring dates:
5 April - 10 May 1997: Inverness museum and gallery
26 May-22 June 1997: Maclaurin Gallery, Ayr
