Elg Post 57 (2020)

Performance over the course of three Zoom meetings. Commissioned by More Than Ponies, UK

An episodic performance live-streamed from a moose hunting look out in the forest just above my home in Nittedal, Norway. Combining video, narration and collective waiting, the performance unfolded over the course of three Zoom meetings, hosted at dawn and dusk; the most active time of the day for the moose. Drawing together the analogous techniques for stillness in the landscape practised in Goethean Science and in deer and moose hunting, the work was developed through research interviews with Lee Knight, a Forestry England New Forest Keeper and with Håkon Tømte, a hunter based in Nittedal.

Episode 1, Stump

settles the viewer into the damp ground, discussing the activity of sitting and of stillness.

The video stream combines cameras, lenses and viewpoints to explore the immediate vicinity of the moose post.

We sit together, for 15 minutes, as darkness falls.

Episode 2, Dawn

addresses the gaze of the hunter, the way in which one looks from the post, and how one might begin to predict where the moose will move.

Extending the boundaries of the image through onscreen drawing, the meeting moves into and beyond the view from the post.

A Potential Moose enters the meeting, and follows a path into the camera’s image.

We sit together for 25 minutes, as the dawn breaks. 

Episode 3, Quarry

looks at the limits of the moose’s habitat, and reveals the wider geographical and geological context of the hillside, exposing further human moose interrelations, including the most brutal encounters.

Here in Nittedal, the hunt has begun, and we don’t know if the moose is still out there.

We sit and watch for her as darkness settles, for as long as the laptop battery allows.

With many thanks to Håkon Tømte and Lee Knight