Research Period:
August, 2008.
Research during Locator Workshop led by Simon Whitehead.

Sites Investigated:
Tyconol Woods & Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Rationale:
To investigate the making of a bivouac, a temporary shelter, in nature.
To explore the bivouac as an imagined exoskeleton.

Notes on process :
I found myself awakening very old instincts in the body. Somewhere deep down the body remembers how to protect itself in the wild. First I looked for a location that naturally could serve as a bed. I found a ledge of rock and a tree beside. I used this as a frame from which to build. I then made a skeleton from branches, like an inverted boat frame, and I filled in the spaces with leaves and smaller branches until I had created a shell of wood and foliage. Inside I made more cushioning with leaves and grasses. I crawled inside and imagined myself as a soft creature just to be born. I lay there for a period of timelessness. I lay naked and slowly birthed myself out, out into the open world.

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