In 2010 I joined ‘The Stove’ – an artists’ collective based in Dumfries…
In 2013, as part of the Environmental Arts Festival of Scotland, we inaugurated an annual event/festival called ‘Nithraid’. In Viking times and later, the rivers of Great Britain were used in plundering raids against the local populaces. However, in recent years ‘raiding’ by sail and oar has become a recreational pursuit, in which sailboats of all shapes and sizes, crewed by sailors with various levels of experience, will from a given start point sail up a river’s estuary. And when sailing is not possible against the flow of the river, then oars can be used to reach the finish.
Of course, in Dumfries & Galloway the objective of the ancient raids would have been to grab as many head of cattle as possible, and only latterly did this give way to the organized trading of beasts. In any event these animals were, and always have been commodities, and this is reflected in the two main aspects of the Nithraid. On the one hand, just as the boats set out on their raid, sailing up the river Nith towards the port of Dumfries, inside the Stove building in the centre of town, a small cow (which I made) was being prepared for transportation to the river . . .
As you can see, the cow is covered in salt … in fact it’s called The Salty Coo! and it’s a the focal point of the Nithraid. The Salty Coo is then brought into the streets of Dumfries, through which it will be processed to the River. (That’s me holding on to the front end).
All through the procession we had been making much music and cow sounds to attract attention, and by the time we reached the river there were quite a few local people gathered there while we sang the song ‘Oh Salty Coo, where are you?’
The Salty Coo was then ferried to a pontoon anchored in the middle of the river. We had built a device with which we could lower the beast into the river quite ceremoniously. (The Nith is tidal at that point, so no problem with the salt contaminating fresh water.)
Meantime, while this was happening, all the yachts taking part in the Nithraid were beginning to reach the centre of Dumfries. Each of the crews had been given a small bag of salt prior to starting out, and as they passed the pontoon where the Salty Coo awaited its ceremonial dunking, each placed their bag of salt onto the surface. And although the Nithraid is not a race as such, the first crew to place their salt is given the honour of ‘Dunking the Coo’.
The Nithraid is now an annual festival of arts and creativity in Dumfries…
And although it’s some years since I was involved, the Salty Coo is still (COVID 19 permitting) being processed to the River Nith among much pomp and celebration. So what do I think this artwork that we inaugurated, is about?
The Nithraid is a celebration of the river itself, but within that celebration I certainly intended there to be an art-critical appraisal of our languages that make commodities of every natural thing – for is it not the special responsibility of environmental art to provoke an interrogation of the status quo by as many as are present? And so the Salty Coo is bellowing out defiance as it goes under the water, a defiance of every word spoken in English that would round it up as just another commodity – just another object in the otherwise endless stream of objectification we call colloquial language.
And for this reason salt is the intellectual and creative catalyst. We cover the cow in salt to denote it’s universal commodification, for after all, is it not to be traded and paid for symbolically in salt? And yet salt has the power to deconstruct this subjugation by being in itself a pure component of the River Nith at this point. Salt to salt, ashes to ashes.
The salt and the river are entangled symbols. The salt is a symbol of the river just as as the river is a symbol of the salt, and it is that symbolism that deconstructs the memes of ideal speech. The salt symbolizes the river and the river symbol washes away the object – to reveal the thing that symbolizes many things.
But there is an issue with The Nithraid, in that the meaning of the Salty Coo threatens to be obliterated by the many celebrations. And whereas celebrating the River Nith is attractive, dunking the Salty Coo is the important, critical – not celebratory – work of art at its core. That is why I say that the processing of the cow should be made with no sounds other than mooing. That was always my intention.