KNIGHT AND SPIRIT
I was drawn to the idea that a person can contain very different versions of themselves at once. Not as opposites, but as states that can replace each other depending on the moment. In the images, the knight and the glowing figure come from that thought: one feels guarded, physical and almost severe, while the other is harder to place - softer, distant, almost unreal.
later I connected this to Tam Lin, a Scottish ballad built around transformation. Tam Lin is changed again and again — into animals, iron, fire, and eventually back into a knight - while remaining the same person underneath. That idea stayed with me: the form can change completely, but the identity does not disappear with it.
The shoot grew from that tension between armour and light, presence and apparition, strength and vulnerability. Not two characters, but two ways of seeing the same person.
They’ll turn me in your arms, lady,
into a snake and an adder;
but hold me fast and fear me not,
and do not let me go.
They’ll turn me into a savage bear,
and then a lion bold;
but hold me fast and fear me not,
however strange the shape.
Again they’ll turn me in your arms
into a piece of red-hot iron;
but hold me fast and fear me not,
I will do you no harm.
At last they’ll turn me in your arms
into a burning flame;
then cast me into the well water,
and cast me in with speed.
And then I’ll be your own true love,
I’ll turn into a naked knight;
cover me with your green mantle,
and hide me out of sight.
