Glacial Procession, Chrysalis Arts Development, Yorkshire Dales National Park, UK, 2023

9 SEPTEMBER 2023

Features of the landscape have determined the placement of human settlements since prehistoric times: valleys provided shelter and ease of movement, rivers enabled transport and trade. As our civilisations advanced, however, we found ways to override these natural paths to create our own, which often cut across, through, or under the landscape to save time and energy. This procession along the Pennine Way in the Yorkshire Dales traced ancient movements of ice, water, and stone. Participants contemplated the nature of paths created by nature and humans, and how these reflect the movements we enact in our daily lives.

In the mixed land use area where this performance took place, re-wilding initiatives, woodland, pasture land, and residential buildings collide within the boundaries of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The Craven district is dominated by upland limestone pavements and valleys; navigating through the region still requires following the laws of the landscape whether by foot, train, or car. Glacial Procession is an invitation to reawaken slow ways of moving, and consider how this most basic relationship of body to land has more broadly shaped our ways of thinking. The procession ended in a guided meditation by the River Aire where participants reflected on questions of efficiency, sustainability, time, desire, and energy.

Five designated members of the procession including the artist bore sculptural walking staffs, each representing an important ecological link in the region’s geological history: glacier, limestone, river, plant, and animal. Inspired by shakujo, Buddhist walking staffs used during travel and pilgrimage in ancient times, they have been designed to make noise and vibrations against the ground to warn small wildlife to move from the carrier’s path and avoid being stepped on. These five figures followed the order of ecological succession they appeared in the landscape, connecting geological and human scales of time.