Bridget McLaren

About

“Everyone carries their own idea of north within them”, Peter Davidson

In his book The Idea of North, Peter Davidson assesses through history, literature and topography some of the many ways by which this concept finds expression.

These companion pieces take inspiration from the imagined geographies of the north. From northern Britain, through Scandinavia and across those regions whose boundaries sit inside the Arctic Circle, one finds within the collective myths, sagas and fairytales a commonality – a battle both literal and metaphorical against the harsh extremes of climate.

‘In the Cave of the Ice Witch’

A cave is often symbolic of the heart, the essence, the absolute. In Sanskrit, the word ‘guha’ means a cave but also a heart. It has a microcosmic and macrocosmic meaning. Davidson comments that in Selma Lagerlöff’s Further Adventures of Nils the Cave of the Ice Witch represents the final heart of the north, the epicentre of frost and cold, the furthest one can dare to go metaphorically and actually. In my work I’ve endeavoured to capture the ‘animating spirit of cold’, an icy petrifaction wherein all things animal, vegetable and mineral encounter those natural forces that cannot be reduced to order

‘Glesia’

A persistent theme in northern mythology is the occurrence of other-worldly islands. Often mirage-like in appearance and always transient, Glesia is one such island. Made of crystal, it was deemed to be located somewhere in the North Sea. As Davidson observes ‘ice, rock, crystal and glass interchange and interrelate in Scandinavian mythologies of the other world’ associated on occasion with the home of the gods or adversely with the abode of the dead. My work, Glesia, depicts a landform that is part rock, part glacier, part iceberg, with an archetypal crystal mountain rising sharply upwards towards the sky. Its steep smooth slopes are inaccessible to humans and it is to be approached with some caution and much trepidation – always a goal, never a destination.

Both The Cave of the Ice Witch and the island of Glesia are manifestations of a northern psyche – the archetypal battle between Man and the elements. Everybody carries within them their own concept of north.

Glesia
Mixed media
40x50cm
£220

In the Cave of the Ice Witch
Mixed media
50x50cm
£320