Recovering Place: Reflections on Stone Hill

By Mark C.

Mark C. Taylor recounts a poignant love affair not with a person but with a place that, paradoxically, cannot be easily localized. For many years, Taylor has lived in the Berkshire Mountains, where he writes and creates land art and sculpture. In a world of mobile screens and virtual realities, where speed is the measure of success and place is disappearing, his work slows down thought and brings life back to earth to give readers time to ponder the importance of place before it slips away.

Taylor extends reflection beyond the page and returns with new insights about what is hiding in plain sight all around us. Weaving together words, objects, and images, his artful work enacts what it describes. Things long familiar suddenly appear strange, and the strange, unexpected, and unprogrammed unsettle readers in surprising ways. This timely meditation gives pause in the midst of harried lives and turns attention toward what we usually overlook: night, silence, touch, grace, ghosts, water, earth, stones, bones, idleness, infinity, slowness, and contentment. Recovering Place is a unique work that lingers long after the book is closed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Release date: Jan 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9780231536448

Book preview

Reviews for Recovering Place

[eyes92c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Recovering place--a shared vision!Stunning photography supports page after page of snapshots of thought provoking reflections.I was simultaneously arrested by the clarity and beauty of Taylor's photography and captivated by his soliloquies.Taylor's thoughts about 'globalization' and 'localization', about 'space' and 'place' are a simple yet stunning revelation, a truth that modern man in the hustle and bustle has forgotten. And that Taylor has reconnected with 'place' in his journey at Stone Hill. We vicariously connect through the beauty and insights Taylor presents.Taylor talks about working on a multiplicity of levels and of Hegel referencing disciplines as presenting the same truths in different ways. But Taylor goes beyond the static and leads us to the vividly alive window onto his world, uncovering his recovering place. The place he shares with us through visual design and reflection. As Taylor says, 'As I became more deeply involved with art media and technology, I began to appreciate the importance of design for conveying insights'Taylor further states that, 'art helps us envision the future that we might realize. The task of reflection is to apprehend what thought cannot comprehend in figures that only the imagination can trace.'Certainly this handsome volume culminates as a rewardingly aesthetic approach to ideas enmeshed in design and gives the reader the opportunity to soar in thought aided by reflective imagination.A sincere and thoughtful work, an artistic presentation to delight in, and a gift to treasure!A NetGalley ARC