Fallow - unearthing layers of meaning

Creative mapping of Jedburgh Artwalk #1. Collagraph print.

The Fallow Land Project is one that obliges me to take my time, slow time, time for reflection and research over days, weeks and months. Without this temporal stretch I wouldn't be able to unearth meaning. Mining for meaning. Fallow is an interesting  signifier. It carries with it agricultural and ecological significance, metaphorical resonance in the biblical and spiritual spheres and, as I'm discovering, there's an important social meaning that emerges slowly when you start to work with people and form small communities around activities that connect us to the land and the food environment. 

I'm interested in how we can form small communities around food growing in the town - planting vegetables, siting planters around the public space and working with the council to recreate the historical herb garden in the Old Friary. The Jedburgh Artwalks already have the feel of a nascent community.

If they can be sustained these modest initiatives could and should transform social potential from a dormant state into a productive state, releasing creative energy and offering benefits to the individuals, the groups involved and the town. A side benefit, much needed in this slow small town, would be the establishment of a precedent in the cultural creative and community domains, a template that enables further development. That's where I am just now with the meaning of the word 'fallow'.