If you’ve read the recent blogs you’ll know that I’m currently working on a project with my occasional collaborator, Gordon Dalton, for Eden Arts. In brief, the commission is to make a new video work based on the A66, that runs all the way East-to-West-to-East-to-West across the North of England. We’re seeing it as a kind-of follow up to our 2007 work ‘Everyone Knows This is Nowhere’; ever since we made that trip (from L.A. to Twin Falls in Idaho) we’ve wondered if it might be possible to make a similar trip in the UK.
So, now we know.
Last week, with lockdown being eased just enough, we set out from the North East - where Gordon is based - to drive the full length of the A66 and back again over four days. The road itself is only about 200 miles across, so it’s perfectly feasible you can drive there and back in a day, but where’s the fun in that.
We’ve been reaching out to various folk along the route for a few months now, in part just to chat and get a perspective on living along the route, but also in an attempt to gather footage/images/text/audio that we can incorporate in the final film too. It’s not too late to offer a response to us, so if you live along or nearby the route and are interested, scroll down to the bottom and there will be the information there for you to consider (after all the photos I’m going to post). Your involvement would be much appreciated.
I’m not going to post a full road-trip report here, just a few images and thoughts about the journey and project in general.
First thing to say is that it’s been a difficult project to get going. That’s not anybodies fault - Eden Arts have been great, really supportive and keen to offer the contacts they can etc. - but the time we’re in right now makes a project where the plan is to drive across the country and talk to/meet people, understandably, a bit tricky. I know from every project I’ve ever done like this that the best stuff often comes from a chance meeting with a stranger in a pub or corner-shop, not necessarily an organised Zoom meeting. That said, I’ve had the pleasure of chatting/meeting some interesting people through Eden Arts introductions.
Personally, I’ve barely left Cardiff for about a year now, so being out in a totally new landscape was refreshing, exciting and slightly disorientating. There’s a sense that the world is trying to wake up, but hasn't yet, and is being rightfully cautious as it goes about it. That’s mostly the case anyway - we did drive through Keswick on Saturday and decided not to stop as the main drag looked a bit like those images of the 2020 Cheltenham Races. Did somebody say super-spreader event?… (I’m being overly dramatic, of course).
We took the approach of driving and stopping in any places that caught our eye. One thing that led us a bit was the excellent website Atlas Obscura. If you don’t know it, it’s a world-wide database of interesting places, with a search facility attached so you can either look up a certain place or just find out what might be near you. So, pretty much our first stop was at the grave of Moses Carpenter in Middlesbrough - a First Nations man who travelled through England with a snake-oil salesman in the late 1800s.
We both love this kind of stuff, in part because it brings a slightly American-road-trip veneer to the whole thing. Something we were mindful of trying to circumnavigate/embrace/acknowledge is how when you travel in your own country/nation it’s harder for things to catch your eye than when you’re in a foreign country/nation. When you’re in an alien land absolutely everything looks interesting - a traffic light, a cafe-diner, a road sign - fairly mundane things that are so exciting when you’re somewhere else, but just become an ambient background visual when you live somewhere for a long time.
That said, the landscape along the A66 is pretty extraordinary, even before you hit the dramatic fells of the Lake District, and we ended our first day in Whitehaven, with a really beautiful sunset.
The next day, we met up with one of those Eden Arts contacts, John Scanlan, in Workington. I’d had a zoom chat with John prior to the trip which culminated in him making the generous offer to walk us up a grassed-over slag heap when we finally got to do the road trip. Who could pass up on a generous offer like that?!…
It was a genuine pleasure to meet John. He’s a very generous individual who has an incredible knowledge of West Cumbria. He also has a real interest and knowledge in rock and heavy metal music, so was pretty much the perfect person for me and Gordon to spend the morning with. And that slag heap, what a treat. The views out to sea and back across Workington were really incredible. If you’re in the area and have never been, I’d highly recommend it.
The next few days followed the same path (literally), driving and stopping and driving and stopping (Warcop and Helbeck both caught our eye, for teenage heavy metal reasons). We ended the trip by burning things on the beach in Saltburn-By-The-Sea; not technically on the A66, but close enough to count.
I’ll not go on any more, otherwise I’ll end up writing the full school report, so I’ll leave you with a bunch of images from the trip. And, as I said at the start, if you live in - or are connected to - the areas along the A66 and fancy offering a response for the project, please take a look down the bottom, past the photos, where there’s some info that’s informing this whole thing there. Cheers…
If you want to help us out/get involved…
Northern Valhalla is a new film and public art project by Gordon Dalton & S Mark Gubb, commissioned by Eden Arts. A road trip, from East coast to West coast following the A66, talking to people about their hopes and fears for the future. We are keen to receive anything you may like to share, in any format from drone to tiktok to archive or visual/sound/text. We will be conducting interviews via Zoom or whatever is easiest for you. Please message us if you would like to take part and have your voice heard.
Here's a list of some of the questions we are asking people. If you want to answer some or all of the questions you can send us audio or video, text or we could interview via zoom. Hopefully we can do it in person soon, at a safe distance... all opinions welcome, message us here or tiktok, insta, facebook (search Northern Valhalla)
Are you bored?
How are you feeling?
What does the future look like?
What does culture look like?
Do you enjoy social media?
Are you proud to be British?
Who is your hero?
Does music have an emotional effect on you?
What does success look like?
What do you believe in?
Who do you love?
What's life like in Cumbria?
What's life like in Teesside?
Do you remember your childhood?
What are your hopes and fears for the future?
More than just a film, the project will include exhibitions, collaborations and two spectacular events (think Kirk Douglas at the end of the Vikings or putting 200 hundred Mentos in a coke bottle). Our first collaborator is the extremely talented Lord of the Logos, Christophe Szpajdel, who has created logos for just about every Black Metal band ever, as well as logos for Rhianna, Metallica and the Foo Fighters. He's created our logo, and we're working with the brilliant Pineapple Black Art Space in Middlesbrough to show his work. If you want to add your voice, have any A66 related footage, get in touch and we'll go from there to Valhalla and beyond...