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12/17/2004: "Sheepish Behaviour"
My first experience of photographing sheep although interesting was not my most fruitful. I had chosen a rather neurotic bunch who were very easily spooked and always on the move. At one point, they halted for a moment, posing thoughtfully ...(I think), and stared at me with great suspicion; a perfect animal shot! However, not being quite satisfied with the camera angle , I made a terrible mistake , yes I bent my knees... Whoosh! Off they shot! One took off and they all followed “Baaa, look out girls! Scary knee bending at three o clock!”
So I found myself chasing the herd, always trying to get a better frame, keeping my eye to the view-finder as I stumbled over stone walls and sheep´s droppings. I tried to outrun them with a bit of fancy footwork, cutting them off from up ahead, but to my great frustration they out-manoevred me and headed in the opposite direction, leaving me, at the end of the day, with a nasty sensation in one eye and a few arse shots. Not everybody´s cup of tea.
My next encounter was with a smaller but much more accommodating flock, alot less sheepish actually. They were fantastic! Laid back, confident, attractive, you know, real professional sheep. They were so relaxed with the camera that I guessed they must have done this before; or was that some other kind of herb they were nibbling on? They belonged to 12 year old Jorge who enjoyed my foolish questions like “Which are the sheep and which are the goats?”
Jorge had 3 breeds in his herd : French, Spanish and Algarvian (sorry, no Welsh)... oh and a couple of goats. They were all very gorgeous, especially the French ones with their permed, poodly hairdos. They looked very similar to the Spanish, but Jorge told me the way to tell them apart is by looking at their bellies...to see which ones are furrier. I wondered if they relied upon this same method of distinction at passport control?
Over the next few weeks I became more familiar with my friendly flock, especially a tame one called Mansinha who wore a collar and behaved like a disobedient dog. Occasionally, as I crouched in the bushes with my camera, she would come up behind me and nibble at my hair. Sometimes I would go to visit them at their shady barn up the road, where I would sit overlooked by a horse, and attempt a few sketches until I became overcome with the summer heat and flies.
The behaviour of these sheep was even more fascinating in their enclosure. Deprived of fodder, they hadn´t a clue what to do with themselves, and with no apparent goal in life, resorted to a strange ritual, which involved wandering around in small groups and then suddenly stopping in formation with their heads to the ground and keeping absolutely still. They appeared to be playing some primitive version of musical statues. Perhaps one of them was humming “Baa Baa Black Sheep” on some exclusive ovine frequency, inaudible to other species. The goats just got comfortable in the feeding troughs and looked on like judges at an audition; the lambs, too young to understand the rules snoozed in the corner, while Mansinha, not in the slightest bit interested in the proceedings, followed me about nudging my elbow occasionally and nibbling at my sketch pad.
And now, as my exhibition deadline looms ever closer, frolics with the flock are drawing to a close in the wilds of Boliqueime. Whatever fate lies ahead for my woolly muses, at least they can rest assured that their shaggy souls are forever immortalized on canvas heading for Vale do Lobo.
I´d like to thank them for their time and I´d like to thank ewe.
(Jessica Dunn - Solo Exhibition - Vale do Lobo Gallery
Opening 7 pm Friday 10 December 2004 – ends 2 February 2005
Tel: 289 360306 or 289 353327
e-mail: galeriadearte@vdl.pt or dunnribeiro@hotmail.com
Web-site: www.absolutearts.com/jessicadunn)
