Outside Looking In – A Psychogeography of West Somerset

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A new work by Treefrog 'David' Sanders.

An essay in eight parts, a psycho-geography of the haunts of his formative years, framed in the ever present now of Covid.

Treefrog writes:

For much of 2020 I found myself accidentally locked down in quarantine with my ageing parents in England. For five months I had no face-to-face interactions with anyone other than dear old mum and dad. As restrictions eased I was able to get out and about in the area of Somerset that I grew up in as a teenager. Walking alone along the old pathways through half-forgotten villages woodlands and hills provoked a deeply introspective examination of memory and feeling, a dreamworld made even more strange by the fearful and uncertain social context of Covid.

One – Succumbs Goats Remarried - 77K and the Stairway to Heaven

Part one of eight: Looking at memory and mnemonics.

Two - Presuming Lectured Hubcaps - Two Frogs on the Top of Adcombe Hill

Part two of eight: A conversation between two frogs.

Three – Minivans Weeds Bricks - In the Snow, Don’t Believe A Word

Part three of eight: Old songs fade away

A heavily filtered picture of a motorway

Four – Licks Clusters Create - The Lost Tree of 78R, the Major’s Daughter

Part four of eight: In search of the tree

Five – Tummy Skater Parsnips - Daisy through the Hedge

Part five of eight: A conversation between a frog and a cow

Six – Prowling Treating Besotted - Stick to yer Day Job, Mark E Smith, we know you and you cannot sing

Part six of eight: No talent for drawing or painting

Seven – Singer Similar Replaying – 79J and The Snow Goose

Part seven of eight: pull all the stops, it is love.

Eight – Exits Intervals Elsewhere - Herd Mentality

Part eight of eight: Don't they know there is a war on?

Line and Dot Network

A video of one of Treefrog's line and dot artworks

This work was commissioned by Pyramid Club as part of the Unmaking the Near Future series, made possible with the support of Creative New Zealand.

Treefrog 'David' Sanders

UK-born in 1962, Treefrog ‘David’ Sanders is a musician and artist with a peculiar interest in the piano and creative investigations into the world of fluid dynamics. Since 2009, David has exhibited works at venues including the NZ Academy of Arts, Thistle Hall and Ron Barber Gallery. David has also been a member of the Bayview Shelley Bay Arts Collective and the music theatre group, Amalgam. Solo painting shows include Demolition Series (2009), Surface Tension (2013) and Strange Attractors (2017). David lives and works in Wellington, NZ.