Paths & Walking

the moment feet meet : walk


A WELL WORN WALK : PATH 


STEPS THAT HARDENED : PATH


A FOLLOWING HELD IN COMMON : PATH



walking is an archaic pursuit (except for the clothes)

a walk is a thought; a path is a judgement

the only way slower than walking is looking (after Fréderic Gros)

walking threads sight

every walk must own its horizon

every walk produces a ratio – distance : landscape

walking undresses thinking

how we walk the hills is how we would like to live our lives

when Naismith made his rule regarding the distance a fit walker can walk in an hour on the hills – three miles – he did not allow for photography

some walks are rehearsed daily, some happen only once
 

there are those who speak of how many miles they have walked
and those that mention how many hours

when night falls on a walk it becomes a different walk,
beneath what Rimbaud called the ‘gentle fuss’ of the stars

puddles are a walks speech bubbles

a walk is a rite that can make mountains appear

there are tales that last as long as a walk and stories
that bring walking to a halt

each step marks a moment that the walk drifts in an out of

if walking sets a rhythm well-fitted to thinking then a heather moor
is duh-duh-dumb

so far walking has survived irony, though there are warning signs:
Watch-out, Flâneurs About!
 

if we knew how to say: on the walk I absorbed this much
of the landscape, but all we have are miles and hours

late autumnal walks should be circular or you will end up with one
russet cheek

a walk takes possession of the distance by means of memories
not milestones


what we see renders the walk unrepeatable


no matter how many times a walk is taken you can never step
into the same walk

I walked my inside out

I walked until the hills were inside me

my ‘short walk’ may be far longer than your ‘long walk’

we say that we made a walk, for making is happiness

in Scotland everyone says that you are free to walk where you wish, but no one does
a path should merge into the wild on either side

trust a deer path over a human path

paths are maintained by use

paths are never straight no matter how flat the country

paths decide between us

a song for a path, a pibroch for the great wood

plan a path with broad feet and narrow eyes

paths move the edges of the mountains

a path translates muddled ground into arranged land

a path holds the foreground and assembles vision –
only as far as the horizon

a path is not static

this path is off the map

paths are interludes between episodes

a path is a rod and a road (after Watkins)

I follow the path that is my guide (after Reverdy)



after
Frank Fraser Darling, GF Dutton and Alfred Watkins

bibliography
J. H. B. Bell: A Progress in Mountaineering
Augustus Grimble: Deer Stalking and Deer Forests of Scotland
Frèderic Gros: A Philosophy of Walking
Sheila Young: ‘Lochnagar Route Names’, in Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, No. 210, 2010
Adam Watson: The Place Names of Upper Deeside

photography
walker, Glen Feardar: Hannah Devereux, 2015
Bealach Dearg: Hannah Devereux, 2015
path, lower slopes of Càrn Crom: Hannah Devereux, 2016
Glen Callater: Hannah Devereux, 2016
path, Linn of Quoich: AF, 2015

Ornette Coleman described the notion of style, in playing music, as ‘phrasing that had hardened.

A text on walking, ‘wild gardens’ and GF Dutton’s philosophy of paths will appear shortly on The Perthshire Tour blog


Gathering was commissioned by Hauser & Wirth, for the Fife Arms Hotel, Braemar; the project was launched in 2015 and will conclude in 2018.

The artist residency at University of Aberdeen is funded by The Leverhulme Trust; the project was launched in July 2016 and will conclude May 2017.