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ON ST MICHAEL'S WAY- ESCAPE AND EVASION  2016

When servicemen and women were given 'Escape Maps' printed onto silk in WWII, it was to help them find their way in the event of being caught behind enemy lines. The maps were a practical solution for the urgent need to place oneself in the landscape, for survival. The maps presented here are robbed of that urgency and function, faded and decorated, simultaneously  celebrating and questioning the contemporary interest in pilgrimage, which is rooted in the exploration of the significance of place and journeying. 

Pilgrims walk to find meaning: a walk is a means to place yourself within the landscape, to move through it and find your pace- a means to digest life, to traverse memories, be challenged and maybe make peace. By embroidering the route of the pilgrims from Ireland along the St Michaels Way across the maps, the radical act of wandering is glorified as an antidote to our contemporary culture of speed. The actual shape of the walk is re-presented, dissected and scattered across the surface, a decorative reminder that we all generate our own path.

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