Aillwee Cave

January

The first day is spent within a cave system under the karst landscape of the Burren. I wonder how the terrain that paves and is paved by limestone, one that has been eroded by dissolution, one that has been producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes and other characteristic phenomena has been so eloquently summed up with one word: Karst.

Aillwee Cave, uncovered in 1944 has an elevation of 92 and spans 1,030 in length (measured in meters). And Aillwee derives from the Irish Aill Bhuí. This means yellow cliff.

The cave’s interior reveals why it is referred to as yellow; where stalactites and stalagmites transcribe the scene.

It is practically burning shades of ochre. Accents of vanilla, alike luminous alabaster. There is a conglomerate of calcite, constructed through sheetlike deposits; forming flowstone. I learn this phenomena is most often found in caves of limestone.​

The genetic makeup of this cave is limestone; a sedimentary rock. An action, a misconception, a suffix.

I said, I meant -ary.

Oceanic fossils succor it, assist it, help it form, settle in place.

Now I find myself searching for the color yellow, there and everywhere. Though I am unable to tell if my eyes merely place it within the landscape, a treasure for myself to find.

Aillwee Cave, 2019

14” x 15”

Ink, Kozo Paper, and Transparency Paper