Reflections on the work of Christopher Yates Tilley 2
Tilley in the north – with glass – magnifying glass, Claude glass, dark mirror?
Thomas of Erceldoune, the Rhymer, Thomas the True, poet and prophet who could not tell a lie. 1292 Scottish Borderlands. Favorite of Walter Scott, inventor of the historical novel — Wizard of the North.
Kronos, titan, who consumed his children in fear that they might one day overthrow him. When he demanded his new son, his wife Rhea handed him instead a pebble. He ate it, mistaking it for a human form.
(Click on an image to view the gallery full screen)
Pebbles from a northern beach, Nyborg Strand, Fyn, Denmark. What do you see, what can you make out in the dark mists of stone textures? Pareidolia. Signals and noise. Figure and ground.
Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign”:
T S Eliot, Gerontion, 1920.
The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness.
