The first Field Post by Sam Francis in response to an archival multi-disciplinary project based on the creative documentation of a ‘year in the life of a field’ by Lizzie Cox, at Arnolfini, in 1981.
[ vernal equinox ]
20.3.21 | 9:37am
at St. Audries Bay undressed in layer stripes I enter the water timed in blue : in green
imagining a field, a life lived in colour
| m e m o r y t r a c e s |
![]() *Lizzie Cox’s studio, March 2021 | through the buzz songs of others |
many conversations are taking place here in/side this reddened land | *earth cuts i, at Nettlecombe, shot on 35mm, March 2021 |
A FIELD n.
| |
shul n. track (Tibetan) “a mark that remains after that which made it has passed by – a footprint, for example. A path is a shul because it is the impression in the ground left by the regular tread of feet.” (Solnit, 2005) | ![]() |
*’Field’ slide transparency, Lizzie Cox’s studio, March 2021 |
![]() |
= equal = light | dark |
*earth cuts ii, at Nettlecombe, shot on 35mm, March 2021 |
[ b e n e a t h t h i s ]
_______here_______
| then | now |
1:2 becomes 3:4
[ rhythm ]
feet | seasons
[ a spring in her step ]
* line colours at Nettlecombe, shot on 35mm, March 2021
At Nettlecombe, woken by a commune of ravens
overhead. Beneath a dawned yawn of rumbling,
tumbling oaks, verdant with lichen
pale gold, ripened moss chests.
Brown of root-earth-systems prop up
green dwellings of under-grassy-land,
hold of hand.
an utterance
![]() 100 thistles at Nettlecombe, March 2021 | Many conversations (have) take(n) place in this place Veering up-down, 1:2 under-hollow-foot, Echo-trace thrills on the chill breeze, endless routes What now is then seen, past, trailing, continuous. 100 creeping thistles grow, |
endnote:
Here it is that I begin a year-long exploration of a work and a person, a place(s); part 1:4 in seasons. Discovering a life lived in colour through the fall of footsteps, the brush of a hand, the breath of a rich life told through the voices of others. A visit, discovery, a family so warm. Of a life lived in a barn, then a chapel. A certain field. A studio, and a life lived of love, art, and work.