This collection comprises of 10 1/1 Stills and a cinematic poetry 1/1 on NINFA x Shape.

In this collection, Laurence captures the floating experience of Highgate Woods in North London. Its mysterious and spiritual qualities that hearken back to the ancient connection between humanity and nature. Like clouds touching the earth, the trees in his stills and cinematic poetry soar both into the heavens and the inner landscape of memory and reflection. This is no ordinary pastoral vision, but one imbued with a deep sense of time—time stilled beneath the canopy of green, where the natural world becomes an arbiter of inner transformation.

From a New Romantic perspective, that nature in art is not merely a representation but a communion with the larger forces that shape life itself. In “HighGate Woods,” Laurence deftly follows this tradition. His imagery speaks of loss, fleeting moments, and transcendence. The wet grass, the foxes, the flickering leaves, and the crosses on the trees become emblems of the sacred in the everyday, where even the most transient of sensations—like the itch of wet grass—becomes laden with meaning. He offers us confessions that dance between the mystical and the personal, evoking an archetypal journey where each step toward the gates of Gilgamesh is a step toward our own fate.

Through a series of stills, the collection captures the eerie beauty of nature at twilight—trees casting long shadows, leaves illuminated by fragments of light, foxes darting unseen between worlds, and the serene omnipresence of nature as an observer of human passion. The cinematic poetry piece, meanwhile, lifts us to a place where time is both circular and linear, where memories of ‘fish in the sky’ and ‘castles in the sand’ speak to both the fragility and the eternal renewal of the human spirit.

In Laurence’s work, we find that nature is more than mere backdrop. It is a participant in the drama of life, invoking the spirit of the satyrs that haunt these woods, bringing the viewer into a space of revelation, where echoes bounce from wells, and the quiet chirps of birds turn to symphonic crescendos. This collection calls us to feel the weightlessness of life in its fullest dimension, reminding us that the sunlight filtered through leaves is no less sacred than the myths we carry in our bones.

HighGate Woods Poetry

The trees in Highgate Woods are like giant green clouds which sit on the ground,
When we walked through them,
On Saturdays communions,
They floated high up and took us with them.

Remember when we sat here by the woods,
The edge of paradise it stood,
There’s a stillness to it’s mercy,
That specter which cursed us,
Time is still under the Highgate sky,
Why is there wet grass left in our skin?
Itching.
They sit on a blanket.

I couldn’t find my feet beneath the branches any more,
They ran and ran,
Fish in the sky and castles in the sand.

A list of things to love to see to gift like letters,
Pages of words that stick to paper.
Shadow life passing through this one.
Memories of a life alone, a place we call home,
The sunshine marked by leaves concede.

Concessions forest confessions,
Posts with Japanese scrolls learned lessons.

Green path in the woods,
Life flows as it should,
All those holes in the ground,
The sound of foxes,
The crosses on the trees,
Green flickering leaves.

Just a single poem,
The sacred and the chosen,
Mystery without her clothes on,
Heroes ride their feelings on loan.

Each step the stairs to Gilgamesh’s gate,
Fate leapt and left us this day.

The field where we ran,
They lift us higher and higher,
A kiss when we get high enough,
Weightless.
Just the sun and the leaves.

We knew that at night,
The satyrs live there,
They watch and they wait,
Until it gets very late in the day,
Then they closed the gates,
Darkness fell the veil,
Once quiet chirps now a Symphony.

Can no longer sit in the dell,
Echoes bounce out the well,
This night in the woods.

And when I hear Robbins I know it is morning,
The song that they sing is of endless glory.
This day that I live,
I live to tell a story.

~ Laurence Fuller, 2024

This collection comprises of 10 1/1 Stills and a cinematic poetry 1/1 on NINFA x Shape.