As a wee boy I was taken by my Granny to a theatre in Edinburgh to see a production of ‘Peter Pan’. Since then I have been fascinated with shadows.
This short film is based on three shadows of myself.
(1) Shadow one: 3.05 am, 2 June 2020, in the hall of Mossgrove, our house [the moon was full and my shadow was cast by moonlight coming through the skylight]
(2) Shadow two: 5.35 am, 7 June 2020, at the grave in Kilslyth churchyard of somebody unknown to me. The inscription had completely worn away but a more deeply carved cross survived and had aged beautifully. The sun had only just begun to rise. The tombstone had the same Mavisbank proportions as the ‘Ageing Stone’ [which is a sculpture that I made long ago and can still be found in our front garden]
(3) Shadow three: 28 January 2019, from memory taken sometime near lunchtime [I recall feeling hungry] in a cave below where Craighall castle once stood. This castle in Fife, and its beautiful den, was a favourite picnic spot in Victorian times. My great-great-great grandfather and his family used to picnic here. John Gordon, my grandfather three-generations back, was born in 1816 as a son of a Deeside whisky smuggler. In announcing his death in 1899 the Fife newspapers reported that he was “familar with every road in Scotland”.
Music credit: a cover by The Stars of ‘What Difference Does It Make’ by The Smiths [NP Music]
The wildflower meadow: currently flowering in the wee orchard at the foot of our garden: an example of Nature that has had a little help from a shadow.