The Barks

While carefully taking apart the wasp nests, it’s not rare to find  pieces of nest paper which are immediately recognizable as images of characters. Once discovered, they’re put aside. The collection continues to grow. It didn’t take long to see that these are images of a very particular tribe of folk whose likenesses can be found in the nests and nowhere else. The tribe has come to be known as “The Barks”. All of the images of the Barks are discovered in the nests as complete, unbroken pieces of paper – none of them are collaged together from bits and pieces to make a figure. Because of this, their discovery is always a surprise and delight.

Some specific and consistent things are known about the Barks, for instance their manner of dress is recognizable now, and it seems pretty certain that they’re a nomadic tribe. But for the most part their lives and ways remain a mystery. One book has been put together of the initial findings about the tribe. It’s a collection of images which most often show the Barks in simple relationship to each other. The book is called “Some Meetings Along The Way”. Here is a sampling of pages from that book.

I fully believe that the Barks have a particular mission, and also that they are quite aware of it – in other words, they are living in their world consciously. To find out more about this, it’s necessary to expand the research into areas bigger than the Barks themselves – areas which influence and even define their lives. The most obvious (and wide-ranging) area to look at now is the landscape they travel within. Certainly if they can be seen in their landscape, then the gestures which have begun to be recorded will have much more meaning. What at first may appear to be quirky stances and body types will likely then be understood as part of the fully appropriate and intimate dance they continually are involved with in their world.