Fallow Land Performances

Here are some stills from the moving image material I've made as part of my Landowner performances/actions/movements in Wester Muir, a large fallow field above Jedburgh. The idea behind this aspect of the project is to play (and dress) the part of a Borders Landowner, then carry out various performative actions in the environment that relate to a relationship with the land. For example, measuring, examining, assessing, recording, witnessing, embracing, being swallowed up by, destroying (pretending to of course) and so on.

These actions ask questions of what it is to own land. Does owning land confer the right to destroy it, isolate it, let it go to waste, forbid others from passing through? Usus, Fructus, and Abusus​. Those who fret over our legal systems still get their knickers in a twist over all this stuff and it fascinates me that there's still a landed gentry in Scotland, two hereditary Dukes no less, meaning unelected, who seem to own half the country between them. Not to mention a crew of minor toffs who own the rest. I love unpicking the detail behind these anomalies or injustices, call them what you will. I like to recall these details every time someone starts rabbiting on about a what a progressive and modern society we have in Scotland.