26th July 2010
Under Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol, UK.
It wasn’t an option not doing this set of pictures. The bridge. The great bridge. The equivalent of getting to the moon in its day. What is meant to be the symbol of Bristol. Innovation, ingenuity. A human feat that joins two ‘camps’. A vision to create a ‘miracle’. What inspired this obsession – convenience? – frivolity? Showing off? I’m climbing a tree and from there I could see climbers on the way up the Avon gorge. Why? Is it because we’ve nowhere else to go so the only challenge is facing death. Get food, get sex, then get high? In this case not on drugs but up rocks and trees.
Was this bridge the result of too much time on the hands of 19th century Merchants, not sure of how to spend their (slave) blood money? – Get high building a bridge? The swelling of the ego gratified … Surely something like this bridge wasn’t exactly necessary? Pretty cool but an extravagance? I remember the first time I went to the Albert Hall in London, it was awe inspiring – that man/woman had built something like this. Perhaps we’re trying to impress God. Well … The best architecture is either incredibly impressive as if we are ascended beings with incredible vision, creative to challenge and please the makers and users or has a way of slotting into nature, as if it were designed by something that belongs to this planet – like we do. (Probably). Sometimes it feels like we’re competing with nature, trying to out perform it. Make a statement by chomping out the landscape or … bridging it …So … I like the bridge and I like the gorge too. I wonder if I’d like the gorge more without it(?) The bridge with out the gorge would be quite interesting. Wouldn’t make a lot of sense though. The bridge with no gorge would be a sculpture. The thing about stuff we build is we can make it predictable. A ladder has many rungs of equal distance and height. I thought it would be nice to poke my head out the top of the tree and get a better shot of the bridge but no. This tree won’t allow it. It felt risky enough getting as high as I did. Louis said I was slow (and timid) but I’d rather be slow and timid than dead. I suppose one could grow a tree and sculpt it, shape it over the course of its life – create a ladder out of a tree – one that is more uniform – the best of both worlds. Except what about when you need to move it to reach the guttering on the other side of the house(?) Grow another one? Can you grow a bridge? Or a house?
Serendipitous! … I just spoke to a tree consultant who will take me tree climbing with ropes and he spontaneously talked about growing a house! More on how when I meet him later in the year. Yes! A bit like Paul talking about underwater trees after writing about it … what, is that a coincidence? Sometimes they seem too coincidental. No?
