“Silent but for the pointless yearnings of migrant birds”

⁣⁣Read it one way and this is the tale of the quiet skies over Europe in April 2010 when ash from Eyjafjallajökull, the Icelandic volcano, caused planes to be grounded and people to stay where they were.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
But brush the nap the other way … and it’s a tale beginning in June 2016 and which still has no ending in sight. A tale of a more deliberate, self-imposed, but no less disruptive, restriction of movement through Europe.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
It was made in response to paper made in *2010* as part of their ‘Paper Trail’ project. I browsed around for⁣ events from 2010 for inspiration and the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull seemed like a roaring and magical starting point for a tiny tale.⁣⁣

The Work

The base is the reverse of the cover from an old edition of ‘The Oxford & Cambridge English History’ (with a Brexit subtext to the piece it seemed apposite to flip history over and wilfully write my own story across it.)⁣⁣

I sanded my small, grey, piece of archive paper to create paper dust, die-cut birds and the letter ‘X’ from double-sided adhesive, and covered them with the ‘ash’.⁣⁣

Finally I sifted, sorted and scanned my vintage book page collection seeking something I didn’t yet know I wanted to say about volcanic ash … and Brexit.⁣⁣