I was thinking today of two interesting aspects of the cine show at the Leeds Wall. The first, and simply amusing, one was the way people accommodated to the lack of seating. I took a conventional picnic chair (of which there were a few) but other participants used bean-bags, bouldering mats, and camp-beds. One chap even appeared to have brought along an ordinary arm chair. The human race is wonderfully adaptable.
The second aspect of the interest of the occasion had to do with my developing ideas about landscape. Despite the fact that the climbing activities portrayed in the films were all located in areas with terrific scenery, we were only allowed occasional glimpses of this. This surprised me, because one of the attractions of climbing as an activity is that it takes place in really lovely outdoor settings. In these films, however, we were given far more opportunity to make a close examination of two fingers or the tip of a climbing boot settling into some infinitesimal hold. Why? Then it occurred to me that “landscape” in this context works rather as in early mediaeval religious art. There we have to be content with the merest hint of a grand building in order to realise that this is “The Temple”, or a rather crude suggestion of a rocky outcrop to make the connection that St. Jerome is meditating in the “The Wilderness”. Once we get the point, it seems to be unnecessary that the idea is developed, and our attention can be directed towards the central symbolic purpose of the picture. Am I right in thinking that, in climbing films, reference to Nature has a purely symbolic place? Interesting!
A little lad I know was asked by the minister after church this morning what they had done in the children’s group. “Sticking” was his response. “And what were you sticking?” asked the minister. “Stuff” came the reply. There is a real lesson to be had here. I do hope that people who look at my art are able to come away with a slightly more subtle appreciation of what is going on …. but you never know.