There have been three different versions of this poem sequence / performance text. The first journey was completed in 1998, the second in 2012 and the last (written more specifically for the page) in 2020.
1 - 4. The first iteration, (under the title 'Purgations'), as performed in February 1998, with live music for string sextet by Peter Copley and images (shown as projections) by artist Tom Walker.
5 - 12. Images for Scrublands by Tom Walker, mainly white pastel on black paper.
13. Discarded page from the second version of Scrublands. A work written by hand in pencil in a large sketchbook.
14 - 16. The second version of Scrublands was developed as a live literature performance in 2012, retaining the use of images by Tom Walker and the live music for string sextet by Peter Copley (but with one extra movement) and now with the additional use of a flipchart, the turning of the pages of which separated the sections of the poem sequence within the performance and provided a sort of metatext.
17. For the 2012 version, a video sequence was made in collaboration with artist Abigail Norris at Roche Rock in Cornwall, essentially of a figure walking slowly into the distance, the sequence corresponding with a sonorous passage of music by Peter Copley.
18 - 20. Publicity shots by François Norris for the 2012 run of performances as part of Brighton Fringe Festival.
21- 23. Performances in 2012 were held at The Old Police Cells Museum beneath Brighton Town Hall, the choice of a subterranean venue intended to invoke the Greek notion of 'katabasis', or descent into an underworld. With Mark C. Hewitt as The Protagonist and Kathryn McGarr as The Guide.
24. The Bergersen Quartet + 2, who performed live in the underground space at The Old Police Cells Museum.