PYLON

Greek. Monumental Gateway. Usually to an ancient Egyptian Temple.

Ancient Egyptian Theology. A “Pylon” mirrored the hieroglyph for “Horizon” or “AKHET”

AKHET, “The place where the sun rises and sets”. Translates to “Horizon” or “Mountain Of Light”.

AKHET KHUFU, Ancient name for the Great Pyramid or ”Golden Pyramid”, “Gateway To The Golden Mountain Of Light”

HORIZON, The boundary between Earth and Sky. The limit of the range of perception.

Greek, (Horizon) Kylos

K YLO S
P YLO N

Horizon, Mountain, Earth, Sky, Sun, Light, Gateway.

The Greek name “Pylon” was first coined by a number of Greek academics that visited Egypt about 200BC, most notably Herodotus. By that time, Old Kingdom Egyptian structures were up to 2000 years old and their origins and purpose had been lost in the mists of time.

Herodotus wrote that he had been told by Egyptian (tourist guides), “The Great Pyramid had been built some 2000 years earlier by the Pharaoh, Khufu”. This is the only evidence we have to apply a date to the construction of the Great Pyramid.

So before I turn into “Indiana Jones” lets get back on track!

I’m interested in aesthetics, or more to the point, ideas surrounding the idea of “An Aesthetic” or perceived aesthetics or notions of beauty. The landscape, especially the natural landscape is usually recognised as a thing of beauty. Even an agricultural landscape, which in fact is far from natural, and is as man made as any industrial estate. We often perceive manmade structures, especially utilitarian structures as a blot or an eyesore. I prefer to take the “Relativist” stance. Stonehenge is a man made structure built with a purpose and in an area of outstanding natural beauty. One wonders that if today, it would gain planning permission!

So for the purpose of this project I needed a structure that was utilitarian and designed with absolutely no aesthetic consideration whatsoever. The common electricity grid pylon fits the bill nicely, especially in view of he fact that the very name, in modern English is a corruption of a very ancient word for something that was considered spiritual and theological. Indeed, an integral part of Mother Earth.

I also find the linguistic link between Pylon and Horizon interesting, in that the power lines form a visual cue between one’s self and the horizon, (once considered an essential aesthetic element in landscape painting).

Also the suggestion of “Gateway to the Mountain Of Light” Describing a journey, journey, as in “The Day Of”, JOUR, journey to the horizon, the day “Sunrise” of the horizon

So I’m thinking in terms of a journey through the gateways to the “Mountain Of Light”. (Horizon)

Or to put it simply a series of images of electricity pylons leading to the horizon, which incidentally is always twelve miles away on a flat landscape. I therefore need a line of uninterrupted pylons close to twelve miles long.

I’ve already mentioned aesthetics and the choice of subject matter. So in order to challenge ideas about aesthetic composition in imagery especially landscapes I propose to position the pylon in an identical composition in every image, paying no attention whatsoever to the surrounding landscape.

The images will be monochrome silver gelatine prints. Hopefully to provoke a deconstructive response, in that the above medium is often regarded these days as traditional, contrasting sharply with a contemporary subject matter and idea.

Further, a moving image piece consisting of a High Def. Film shot from the air along the pylon route, tight framing and focussing on one cable with the landscape passing by underneath. Helicopter flying at sixty knots ground speed will give a film length of twelve minutes.

I have a lot of walking and carrying to do.