Locking Down the Line is one of the artworks I created for The Covidly Walking Project arising as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and UK Lockdown in March 2020.
A hundred days of spontaneous wanderings in hill and forest,drawing with my boots on the hill.
https://www.gillrussell.co.uk/p/covidly-walking.html
My walking became more spontaneous. Wandering in hill and forest, I let the landscape guide me as if I was part of it, led BY it, rather than imposing my path on it. I was noticing more exploring in this way- the shape of a tree, a mossy stone, the light that penetrated dark forest. There was a calmness and peace that it brought.
The land was drawing itself through me. I recorded and mapped my walks every day for 100 days.
Words came, rhythm and rhyme, with pace and breath.
May 10 2020
52 walks for 52 days
lines expanding
twisting
through melancholic
ancient birch
Locking Down the Line bought by Aberdeen Art Gallery for their permanent collection, funded by the National Fund for Acquisitions.
Gill Russell is an artist interested in places of ‘significance’ and how they resonate in the landscape. She works across a range of forms and media, including installation, audio-visual, mapping, drawing, poems and texts. Recently her work has focused on water and its dynamics with the land. Walking is often key to her exploration.
She has worked with poet/artist Alec Finlay on several projects, with special areas of interest including poetic interpretation of place names and river systems e.g ‘Gathering‘ (Braemar area , 2017-18), the ‘Hielan’ Ways’ project (Deveron Arts, Huntly 2014).
Current work includes the Covid Walking Project, large-scale drawings for a flood protection scheme in Hawick ( lead artist Andrew Mackenzie), and exhibitions at An Lanntair, Stornoway ( May – July 2021) and Taigh Chearsabhag (Sept- Oct 2021).