Work In Progress: Gemma Dagger, A Thin Place

Gemma Dagger has visions that cannot be expressed in words. In her photographic practice she stages scenes that approach those visions and attempt to give them tangible form. A Thin Place is the title of her latest project but that arrived only after she had two images already inside her head: great stones in the landscape and a figure carrying a saw-horse for some undefined ritual purpose. Thin Places are a Celtic concept of special places where the distance between heaven and earth collapses. Upon discovering this during research for her project, the title was set and fragments of thinking began to fuse together in Dagger’s mind.

What we see in the photographs are an austere looking group of a dozen men and women. All wear white shirts under dark jackets and coats. The women wear white headscarves. Their dress and demeanour suggest a rural community on their way to worship in their Sunday best, but there is no conventional church in sight. The group are in an exposed landscape. Together they ascend a hill in single file. A rope is anchored from the top of the hill, a metaphor for the spiritual journey or ascent. It provides some support to those who need it on their way up. Some boys stand in a field with their hands raised palms flat. Are they transmitting something or are they receiving a visitation from beyond? Comically, whether intended or not, two of the boys face the camera shrouded in what appear to be a pair of lace tablecloths. Later the group appear gathered around a large stone that forms part of a vast and ancient circle. Their collective gaze is focused on the sky above. In a parallel narrative a lone male carries his saw-horse to the top of a plateau where, stripped to his underpants, he balances upon it in a strange Yogic posture. Who is he? Is he a shaman or priest of a new cult, or just an individual using his body in an unusual way to reach for the divine?

Dagger visited different thin places including the Twelve Apostles stone circle and Glenkiln sculpture park, both in Dumfries and Galloway. One photograph of a large stone is in fact the plinth from which a Henry Moore sculpture, Standing Figure, was stolen five years ago most likely to be melted down and sold as scrap metal. After that theft other bronze sculptures including Rodin’s Saint John the Baptist and Epstein’s Visitation were removed for security reasons. Only the Glenkiln Cross and several bereft stone plinths remain. Dagger has restored a figure to the landscape, he does not stand he reclines, his support is made of wood not stone, but his temporary presence is profoundly felt.

Dagger’s work probes what happens when the power of religion fades and humans need to find alternative ways of making sense of the world and connecting both with one another and what lies beyond our perceived reality. In previous projects she has investigated everything from folklore to fetishism and the ritual practice of imagined secular communities meeting in public halls but behind closed doors. Our lives are hollowed out by the loss of spirituality, loss of community, loss of meaningful work and by the relentless intrusion of technology and spectacles constructed to pacify us. Our sense of reality is so cracked and tarnished that the weirdness of Dagger’s artistic prodding at the thin wall is a useful antidote. 

Dagger is creatively restless. In her practice, although forms and themes recur, each project cycle must complete before a new one begins. A Thin Place is nearing the end of its natural cycle. A series of the images are currently being shown in the FOCAS organised group exhibition at Platform, Easterhouse. She is also considering some form of publication with text as well as images, a way of opening up the work a little. One more picture is present in her head however. Dumfries and Galloway, where Dagger originally hails from, is as far south in Scotland as you can travel. A Thin Place she still yearns for is half remembered from a trip made several years ago to the far north. Dagger dreams of returning to Shetland back where the Skeklers come from, “to stand at the end of the land”. Whether she goes there or not, let’s hope that she keeps on reaching out into the void and sharing with us her insights.

All images © Gemma Dagger

FOCAS: Document exhibition is on at Platform, Easterhouse until Sunday 9^thSeptember