Maria Lax
Maria Lax
Stray Sod
Coptic Bound (Exposed Spine) Hardback, Cloth
300 x 240 mm
120 pages
63 images
Setanta Books
About the Book:
“There are certain places which the fairies have power over at night and if anybody goes into them after dusk, he cannot come out until morning though he may be walking all night.”
Stray Sod investigates the phenomenon of the same name in Irish folklore: enchanted patches of earth that will lead astray whoever steps on them. Inspired by first-hand accounts found in the Irish National Archives, Maria Lax reimagines rural Irish landscapes through this otherworldly lens.
The stories therein describe instances in which individuals are forced to navigate a world characterised by sudden shifts into unfamiliarity and strangeness. A world in which established reference points distort and slip away, causing great distress to those experiencing it. Stray Sod draws timely parallels between these stories and the destabilizing effects of the fast-changing political and technological environment of today.
“Many of the stray sod accounts seem to take place during periods of great change, such as a time of grieving, but can be equally seen as a metaphor for depression, addiction, shifting political landscapes or rapid technological advancements that have the power to completely upend our lives. They are stories about becoming lost; about the invisible realities that can change our lives overnight, and the unknown landscapes through which we must travel.”
Image by Setanta Books
Book review by Jeff Smudde |
Nestled through the woods and ferns, Maria Lax’s Stray Sod is a mystical journey where turning around will only disorient you further. In this recent publication from Setanta, Lax explores an element of Irish folklore where people may be led astray upon stepping on patches of earth, “stray sod.”
Lax’s photographs portray an unnerving, wandering narrative. Throughout the book, the viewer is presented with distorted images of the Irish landscape with periodic moments of clarity. Yet, even those clinically sharp, un-distorted images have something “off” about them. Lax’s color control forces the viewer into an unnatural state, while being filled with wonder and uncertainty. There are grounding moments of recognizable forms and objects, only to be disrupted by a shimmering image of a silhouette behind the pixel grid of a camcorder.
Stray Sod plays between reality and fantasy; a mystery is not solved in this book. Instead, the work seeks to show this invisible boundary between the two. Lax calls back to historical accounts of people’s experiences with stray sod, placing those moments throughout the sequence on a thin pink vellum.
Image by Setanta Books
The swiss-bound book opens up with a deep, almost unsettling image, appearing as if through an old low-resolution camcorder, of a road leading toward a body of water surrounded by trees. Lax leads the viewer through the first phrases of images setting a tone, a sense of unease and almost as if we, the viewers, are with Lax searching for something. Sure enough, by the first pink vellum page, the text reads “the dog has scents and will find the house, and if you follow him, you’ll be in no danger.” Dogs become an important recurring set of characters in the book, acting as protectors and guides, telling us what is real and what is not.
In a full page spread, Lax positions a photograph of a clear-cut field of tree stumps to the left of a tangled thicket of trees and overgrowth, the entire image split by the gutter of the page spread. The next page feels as if we are looking back behind the clear-cut and thicket. We are warned not to do so in the pink-page accounts. The image shows a house that seems almost out of place.
Throughout the book, Lax presents an array of decidedly unclear images among just as uncertain clear images. She masterfully generates a feeling of wonder and being uprooted. The book itself is a patch of Stray Sod, sending the viewers into a frenzy, grasping at any sense of familiarity only to be spun around to see that things are not quite what we expect them to be.
Image by Setanta Books
