Deniseburna
What is this out of focus photograph? When one looks at the image and tries to make out what is represented it is possible to identify something green down at the bottom and something else that is grey over on the left. But that is all. It is impossible to make out what is the subject of the picture. The representational failure is caused by Michael Shanks’ intentional lack of focus. The image’s essence comes from the location in which it was taken: the place of the battle (in AD 633 or 634) at Deniseburna near Hefenfelth on Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain, where Oswald of Bernicia met and defeated Cadwallen Abcadfoth Gwyneth. Shanks’ work is about a battle and a battle is a very archaeological thing, as is Hadrian’sWall. But the way in which Shanks represents this place and this event intentionally leaves open our understandings of that place, that time, that battle, and those people who were there. It is a photograph of the place of that ancient battle, but it is not a historical or archaeological representation as we would expect it. Shanks has created a work that is anti-archaeological, but which stimulates the viewer to enter into an archaeological world; in making this work, in looking at this work, Shanks and the spectator have to do the work that the authoritative author normally provides in standard archaeological rendering of past place and past event.
More information about this and other of Michael’s work will be found here:
http://www.mshanks.com/2008/05/31/heavenfield/
Specific discussion of relevance will be found in these publications:
Pearson, M. and Shanks, M. 2001. Theatre/Archaeology. London: Routledge.
Pearson, M. and Shanks, M. 2014. Pearson/Shanks – Theatre/Archaeology – return and prospect. In Russell, I. and Cochrane, A. (eds) Art and Archaeology: Collaborations, Conversations, Criticisms, pp. 199–230. New York: Springer-Kluwer.
Shanks, M. 1992. Experiencing the Past: On the Character of Archaeology. London: Routledge.
The text provided above comes from the following article:
Bailey, D.W. 2014. Art // archaeology // art: letting-go beyond. In I. Russell and A. Cochrane (eds) Art and Archaeology: Collaborations, Conversations, Criticisms, pp. 231-50. New York: Springer-Kluwer.