Walking with Lykke in Amager FĂŚlled Transcription by Yatu Tan and Gabrilelle Sanchez Site-writing by Gabrilelle Sanchez
1. Reeds L: I don’t know how to make the reed part, the first part we went to. Its good, I’m making reeds now because the clay is cracking and getting a bit dry because it was just lying there for a while. It suits because it was also dry! T: I like the idea you just frame the place you are facing. A lot of boundaries. L: Yeah but that’s what I need, I need the boundaries to be able to cope. I think I said it last time, im more of an indoor person than an outdoor person. I need my boundaries. If there aren’t any, I make them myself. T: Because actually some people will detach the duck and place them each by each but for you, you place them as a whole. L: But actually that’s only because it would be easier to make the ducks if I detached them and placed them there but then I thought well then they’ll just tumble off, so it’s easier to drag them out from the whole. L: Okay! This is as good as its gonna get! This is the path we went to, then first we went into the smaller ones then the taller ones. T: Its also really interesting the thing you organise is really well organised in a sense its not randomly put. L: No, I cant make anything random. T: So its all, one by one, really strict. That’s interesting. And also this tree is almost symmetrical. And theyre almost about the same size. She woke at day break, it was pleasantly warm for a midwinter’s morning. The sun was shining, birds were singing, the air damp. Guided by a voice, she found herself pacing on a DIFFERENT (gravelly sounds) ground, and away from the cacophonous mix of pedestrians, trains, cars and bikes. Away as they may be, they were still with her, behind her, bearing her a gentle reminder of what she left behind, and entered into.
She woke at day break, it was pleasantly warm for a midwinter’s morning. The sun was shining, birds were singing, the air damp. We’ll take this secret path, a voice nudges. Walking alongside the wind, she wonders, am I walking on a path or just grass? It’s not the easiest to figure out with her rainboots on. But she feels she is surrounded by an open space. Something to her left catches the sound of the wind
differently. She rushes towards it. The voice motions, there is a journey to your left. The reeds stand tall shooting up with grandeur. Their feathery ends catching the sunlight to create a sea of gold that has a softness only the gentleness of a feather can catch. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. She’s rushes into what seems like a crowd of thin needles of the most inviting kind. The voice pulls her back, encouraging to slow down and in take her surroundings. She runs her fingers at hips-height along the sea of wheat, her hands skimming along the crop with a hesitation and curiosity that comes with a first meeting. “That’s what I could hear that they caught the sound differently” she thought. “The one behind you, its taller than me and taller than you. The one in front of you is taller than me but shorter than you. 2. Small trees, big tree “It’s like a presence for me. Compared to the other surroundings.” The big tree had a presence because it was amongst the small trees. We could hear them but we couldn’t feel them. When we came closer to the big tree we could feel it, even Anne could. Because usually it’s just the sound of the tree but, this, it was like some energy that was coming from the trees. Maybe it was because it was surrounded by all the small trees then the energy from this one tree was that much more intense. Because in a forest all trees are big, so you don’t notice this one tree but because there were small trees around it and one big tree even though it wasn’t that big of a tree, because we had walked between all the other small trees then it felt like a really big one. All these differences make you realise the presence of this object and notice it even more. Because when there’s lots of big trees, they’re just big trees but when there’s just one you notice it even more.” Sometimes adventure presents itself boldly – a fire with loud, aggressive, energy full of expectation and naïve optimism. Sometimes adventure presents itself as a whisper – a gentle nudge, an invitation in a path less taken. In this second destination, she found herself quickly in a vacuum with a simple step to the right. A stillness of sound. A force-field would be too robust of a word to describe what surrounded her even if she did leave the wind, sound and light behind her. She entered this seemingly contained wonderland of
fantasy and seclusion, a place to call her own. Although isolated, it seemed to contain something of a childlike quality, more of an innocence than a naivety. It was still. The stillness pervaded throughout disturbed only by the crackle from every step she took further into the world. Each step gave life to the wonderland, making her mark physically and audibly into the wonderland. To her left she felt a large presence. 3. Parking Lot Potholes Adventure, playfulness, walking towards danger L: It’s hard to make it as rough as it felt. It’s the parking lot I’m trying to make where we came in and walked around and came back. That’s all the bumps we went down into but its more organised here than it felt when we walked there. It’s hard to make it as disorganised as it felt when we went there. T: It’s also really interesting how you framed it from here to here. L: It’s because we came in here and then we made a left and walked back. Yeah! We made a U-turn at a parking lot. Make a legal U-turn as the GPS said once. Its funny because I have to heat up the clay to make it more mouldable but at the same time I’m trying to feel the clay thinking “hm, how should I mould it?”. What’s so special about this place? Its an open space, yes, its close to the road, she hears cars to her left, life, people, city are close by. A scrumptious waft of French fries from where the sound of cars come from. We must be at the edge of the commons! But why is the voice taking me here? A force pulls her away from something to her right. Her heart leaps as if she has missed a step. Her foot has landed 3 inches into the ground. Two more steps. Back on solid ground. Another step away. Into another 3 inches sunk into the ground. Her feet tell her that the force is not guiding her away from danger but instead towards it. 4. A Hugging tree Use of body, playfulness T: Which destination was your favourite? L: The climbing tree! That’s the one I liked the best because I could use my body. So there was both the feeling of the roughness of the trees. I really enjoy climbing the tree and playing. So that’s the climbing tree. Its like because I only saw one side of it, so that’s why theres only branches to the
one side because I didn’t go around to the other side so I have no idea what was on the other side of the tree. And when I made it now it sort of was like a hand, suddenly, because there were the two branches I climbed so it sort of felt like the tree was hugging me while I was making the clay.
The recluse 5. The Lake T: A lot of duckies L: And one of them is only the head because then I can make an open mouth because its making some noises! Maybe this is a goose, the beak don’t wanna be a duck beak. T: Its also really interesting the space you are portraying is almost in a circle, something surrounding you, also this one, Its like a more enclosure experience. L: Because that’s what I can sense, I don’t know what’s out there, I know what’s around me. T: Interesting. A walk up a soft, comforting path then down again. As she walks away from the down path, she is greeted by two suns, one from up high and one from down below in front of her. The voice asks how she knows that it’s a lake. She saw the reflection of the sun in the lake, but had she been standing here for a while, she would have probably figured it was a lake had there been no sun because of the sound of the birds, they sound like water birds, ducks. Just like how you can figure out that it really is night time when you hear the owls hooting in the distance, the quacking of ducks tell you that you’re near water.