An important part of the Holding Space project has been the practice of holding back.
Rather than directing every aspect of the work, space is left for the project to evolve through its relationship with place and with those who encounter it. It is within that encounter that the work finds its fullest expression. This page presents some of those responses.
The musician.
The following film documents one such response. Musician Geoff Smith felt compelled to return to this landscape to reconnect with memories of family and place; he speaks about discovering the Holding Space trail before performing one of his own compositions, a song that journeys through the sun, the moon and the tides.
The Green Man.
Following his encounter with the circles during the workshop, Tom O’Connor (@green_man_growing) was reminded of his recent reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy and its symbolism of circles. His response took the form of this photograph, in which the human figure is framed within the circle.
The Artist.
My daughter Penelope currently studying fine art and printmaking at Glasgow school of art hand drew this pen ink image to describe the imaginal space within the circular form.
Voices from the trail.
– ‘I just want to step through it, it’s like rebirth.’
-‘It’s the great cycle of birth and death.’
-‘Symbols of transformation!‘
-‘I see liminal space.’
-‘ They feel primordial, like they’ve been here before life.’
-‘ They create a strange connected journey.’
–‘They look like they are observing us.‘
-‘..it has an archetypal energy.’
-‘..the great cycle of death and rebirth..’
-‘I think it goes to fairyland.’
Holding space 