Mythology of Place - Homage to James K Baxter - © 1993-94 - Lloyd Godman - Lawrence Jones
THE
MAKING OF 'THE MYTHOLOGY OF PLACE'
Introduction - Lloyd Godman
The power of place is
such that it can centre our world. It can become a force that
confines, restricts and binds, but the same inexplicable force
can also become a different power; a centre from which a vortex
of perceptive experiences grow.
Brighton is a small seaside
township near Dunedin, it is a place where James K Baxter
lived and grew up as a boy, a place that inspired Baxter,
a place that became the centre of his perceptive world, a
place that was important in his writing. A place of personal
Professor Lawrence Jones
and myself have also lived in Brighton for 20 years, in fact,
close to the Bedford Parade house that Baxter grew up in.
While there are deviations in our experiences, between us
we have walked the same beaches as Baxter, paused on the very
same headlands to watch the same ocean swirl the long thick
leathers of kelp amid a frenzy of spray. Smelt the same dense
vapours of fresh salt air as the curtains drift off the ocean,
climbed over the very same sand enshrined rocks and fished
in the same crystal clear pools. Swam in the same embracing
sea water, paddled in the same mysteriously black river and
hid in the hollows of the same caves. Heard the same haunting
cry of the gulls amid the rustle of flax and witnessed the
same razored gales that cut incessantly at any obstacle. In
essence breathed the same unique airs.
As a component of the
Baxter Conference held in Dunedin this year I was presented
with an opportunity to work collaboratively with Lawrence
on a project called "Mythology of Place" about Baxter and
his three worlds of Brighton, Central Otago, and Dunedin.
Photographically the project involved locating and photographing
areas of significance to Baxter's poems, in some cases the
exact rocks or trees that featured in his writing. While there
is the undeniable representation in the photographs that locates
them both in time and place, the real challenge was the manifestation
of Baxter's mythology in the visual image through the use
of symbol, metaphor and detail.
This we saw as an acknowledgment
of both place and heritage. Affirmation of Brighton as the
centre of our experiential vortex and also an explicit occasion
to pay homage to Baxter's legacy of mythology.
Lloyd Godman's Brighton House
Lawrence Jones (left) and Lloyd Godman (right)
outside Lawrence's house on Bedford Parade during the Baxter
Conference 1994
(photograph Max Lowrey)
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