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Continuing on from my ‘Talking with Vikings’ project, The Clent Expedition further explores the possibility of early Norse influence on the people and the history of the West Midlands.
Based within the historic but largely unexplored area of Clent I will be using documentary as well as non-linear narratives, archives and observations to explore the boundaries between past and present, history and fiction, as well as lived and represented reality.
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Nestled in the foothills of Clent, The Explorer’s Base Camp is the conceptual hub from which I will be coordinating a number of activities in an attempt to understand the landscape ‘from a Norse perspective’.
From this vantage point ‘The Clent Expedition’ will seek to illuminate and examine the various layers that contribute to the specific topography or make-up of the area. Gradually as the exploration progresses a more mulltii-dimensional, portrait or presentation of the area will be formed, analysed and exhibited.
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There are many place names in the area that seem to support my hypothesis that early Norse settlers may indeed have left a physical presence on the landscape.
When I first noticed the sign to Clatterbach Lane in Clent my instinctive reaction was to read it as the Norwegian ‘klatter-bakke’, meaning a ‘climbing-hill’. Through the expedition I will be seeking to analyse the way that we respond physically and psychologically to the landscape and its history and how that landscape has an effect on us.
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