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University of Salford   2005/2006

Patricia Townsend

Patricia has taken the Cumbrian stone circles as a starting point for a video installation and two series of photographic works. The central installation of the exhibition - a large stone cairn surrounded by a ring of TV monitors showing leaping flames - draws together the history of the circles (many of which were used as burial sites, the burial chambers marked by cairns) and the world of myths and legends. In her two photographic works, Patricia has used photographs of the surfaces of stones from Cumbrian circles to construct haunting images relating to the belief that the stones were aligned with the position of the sun or moon at key times of the year.

I am interested in our relationship with landscape, the ways in which landscape can affect us emotionally, and the stories we construct by projecting our own beliefs, expectations and desires onto what we see says Patricia. Stone circles remain mysterious, as we only have limited knowledge about their original purpose. This has left room for people to construct their own myths and stories. For instance, legend tells that the stones of Long Meg and her Daughters, a stone circle near Penrith, where a coven of witches who were petrified by a wizard and that the large stone representing Meg herself will bleed if it is damaged. I wanted to capture something of the mythic quality of the circles and the way history and imagination both contribute to our experience of them.