Cleave | Cleave is a sculptural meditation on the Green Chapel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in the form of a triptych of wood and stone split across two sites.
The artwork is essentially a kind of essay on the metaphysical parallels between the split in the respective landscapes of The Green Knight’s neck and Lud’s Church. The former at his beheading in the book, and the latter the rock slip in the Peak District widely thought to be the poet’s likely siting of the Green Chapel where the book’s denouement occurs.
A log of seasoned yew wood is split and its sawn faces gilded in 22ct gold. A living sprig of yew occupies the numinous space at its centre, suggestive of the chasm of Lud’s Church; the whole ensemble a kind of first triptych, out of two.
On its left is a large section of sandstone, typical of the Wirral peninsula referenced in the Gawain poem, and which contains the first part of line 2185:
We! Lorde quoþ þe gentyle knyȝt
A second identical stone has been placed in Eastham village under the yew of St Mary’s Church. This is a 1,600 year old specimen, so contemporary to the Gawain poet and acts as an ephemeral link to the text, as well as positing that the hollowed-out yew itself is a form of green chapel. This second stone forms a grand second triptych over 8 miles distance and is inscribed with the closing phrase of the line:
wheþer þis be þe grene chapelle?
At its heart is the interesting etymology that cleave and cleave, both from the Anglo Saxon, but with entirely opposite meanings dependent on context. Gawain cleaved the head off the Green Knight but his adversary put the head back on, cleaving it to his body..
This piece was created for Part One ‘Nature’ of Into the Wyld at the Williamson Art Gallery from 1st Aug- 13 Sep 2024.
Photo credits (1-3) with thanks to Ben Nuttall