Timespan Artists in Residence

Looking Forward to Looking Back

2011-08-10T02:21:00.000-07:00

Drawing ice

Making artwork involves juggling, sorting and locating all the things that I learn about a place, a landscape and a time. There are always more ideas about processes, materials, sources and stories. Then there comes a time when I have to decide which thoughts are the most important, which idea will I develop and how will it communicate all that I have learned.

When I first came to Helmsdale in Midsummer 2010 it was the Icehouse, the River Helmsdale and the sea that I was interested in. That is still so and the work I put in the Icehouse in September will reflect that. I hope it will describe how being human over the years can be hard work for most of us. Its name is The silence of the moon - this work will describe what I see and not explain what I think. Ask me when I there and I will try and answer any questions about how much being in Helmsdale has meant for me.

Graham Fagen Blog | April 16th

2011-04-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Baile an Or?
Field of gold in English rather than town of gold?
Garnets!
Lots of Garnets.
That’s what we found.
No gold this time but there’s always the next time, definitely.

Crabs, on the doorstep, greeted our return from Baile an Or.
Thanks Lorna.
More (and maybe a lobster or two?) on my return please?!

Tomorrow is the last day the Ed Rusha exhibition will be on.
Great show.
Great to see it up here.
I’ll miss it.
Great to see the national galleries working and showing with others.

In absence of my reflection in one of Ed’s works, I’ll leave you with a sign and a meal.

Until June.

Graham Fagen Blog | April 13

2011-04-15T05:06:00.001-07:00

13 is my lucky number.

I was born on a thirteenth.

Tomorrow I’m going to Baile an Or.

Town of Gold in English.

There was a gold rush there in 1869.

You can still pan for gold there today, in the Kildonan Burn.

As I mentioned yesterday, this is where my journey up the Helmsdale River takes me.

I’m going on the 14^th.

If I had sense I would have gone today, on my ‘lucky’ day.

Instead I went to film old settlements in the rain.

I wanted the rain.

When I got there the rain stopped.

13 was working for me but didn’t realise I wanted the rain to keep coming.

I think I’m more interested in what the need to find gold means, rather than actually striking it rich myself.

It’s good Ed Rusha is here to help me with my thoughts.

Here’s me, thinking of Baile an Or, reflected in Ed’s HOPE.

Thanks again Sir.

Graham Fagen Blog | Time

2011-04-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve never blogged before.

I need to figure out who I’m talking to I think.

Perhaps that will come with time.

Time is what is interesting me here in Helmsdale.

This is my third visit this year the other two visits were in January.

It was in January after my first visit that I decided I wanted to make a video work that was about time.

The River Helmsdale will be the spine of the work.

My plan is to start at the sea, go up river to Kildonan Burn or Baile An Or, where we’ll search for gold and then back downstream, through the Strath to the sea again.

We’ll pass lots of important places.

Land that is owned.

Land that people were cleared from.

Memorials and clocks.

Trees and plants and animals and birds.

This is all on going.

I’ll be working through to July and the exhibition will open in August.

What is on display now though is fantastic.

Ed Ruscha is here.

In Timespan, in Helmsdale, in Sutherland!

He’s not here in person but in spirit through his work exhibited in the gallery until the 16^th April.

It looks great and it’s a real treat for me to have caught it here.

Here is me, wondering who I’m talking / writing to, reflected in Ed’s ‘dirty baby’.

Thank you Sir!

The necessity of imagination

2011-02-04T03:14:00.000-08:00

Snow River

Slowing Time

4 February

Last blog for now as my funding from the RSA for this residency here at Timespan has finished. It’s been a valuable experience on many levels. There are many aspects of Helmsdale that invite close inspection. In my own case it has been walking along the River Helmsdale and the shore – primarily towards Portgower – and then coming back into the village down past the Clock tower Memorial accompanied by its gang of Jackdaws. My work, apart from one piece, has always been sited inside a building and has been a response to that particular building (it’s structure and space, it’s age, it’s prior purpose - see www.sierrametro.com – How long is now? for example). In an ideal world - if I was able to make a work here in Helmsdale- the space and structure (the building, as it were) would be the surrounding landscape. The room would be the walk over the Telford Bridge into the Ice House, and then along the river passing underneath the new bridge to the shore. The return would be via the Clock Tower - where our time is struck and sounded every quarter of every hour every day. The work would invite the walker to think about -to imagine – what takes place over time. The past, the present and the future are all woven together everywhere in the world, and here in Helmsdale the points at which the world can change abruptly for people and their resulting vulnerability to others’ wishes are identifiable. Such vulnerability requires extra reserves of endurance, resourcefulness, adaptability and imagination to survive – to move on. The archive within Timespan contains many examples of how people who lived here coped with those pressures – the community who live here now are witness to continuing changes – the threat to the continued existence of places like Timespan and the local library are real. Imagination is essential for everyday life, imagination does not only exist in dreams, art or stories. It is our way of making sense of the world around us. Without imagination we could not remember, we could not plan, we would not be able to understand how other beings feel – whether they existed in the past, exist now, or will exist in the future. If I am asked to come back and make such a work I hope that it will reflect these many aspects and elements that influence our daily lives.
Thank you to everyone at Timespan and Helmsdale for being so friendly and welcoming and thank you to the RSA for enabling me to research and develop ideas.

Rocks and Waves

2011-01-31T03:00:00.001-08:00

31 January

The stones pictured below are on the shore towards Portgower. The only stone I can reliably identify is quartz. I used to be better at it when I was a child and I suppose the knowledge is still filed away somewhere in my brain but I can’t find it. Many of the stones have markings which resemble faces, the first one below for example.

Back home in Blairgowrie for a few days I go the library and borrow ‘Leviathan or, The Whale’ written by Philip Hoare – in the first few pages I read the following and immediately think of the sea and the River Helmsdale –

“To the careless, the water may seem the same from one day to the next, but under observation it becomes a continuous drama . . . played out at he edge of the shore or on the open ocean. It is a natural spectacle capable of rising dozens of feet up into the air, or lying low like a glassy pond, so mirrored that it might not be there at all, seamlessly joining earth to sky. Surging and peaking, self-renewing and self-perpetuating, it can take away as easily as it gives.”

I am looking forward to traveling back tomorrow.

Burn’s Night, Musical Spray Paint, Bed Rock, Fault Lines and Pebbles on the Beach

2011-01-26T03:40:00.000-08:00

26 January No pictures yet

Ok - I've completely lost track of time now - so much keeps happening here.

On Saturday 22 after a day spent on front of the computer I was ready to spend the evening at the Timespan Burn’s Supper , organised and delivered by the fundraising committee aided by volunteers. A very good night was had by all, about 60 guests came along – there were many smiling faces and much laughter. A bowl of broth to start and then the celebrations were introduced by Jean Sargent when Jamie Kelly (extremely smart in his kilt) piped in the haggis and eating began. The haggis was announced to be eminently tasty – it was accompanied by generous helpings of tatties and neeps and lined the stomach nicely - ready for the trifle to follow. The trifles were made by the organisers and so delicious I had to have spoonfuls from at least five of them – some were alcoholic and some were not but they were all fantastic. After dinner speeches were made by Jacquie Aitken (Timespan’s Archivist) and Christine Cowie (Heritage) – both received hearty applause. Amongst other excellent entertainments Lisa Macdonald from Timespan sang and dancing was by the Kerry Findlay Highland Dancers, four young women who gave an original take on the familiar form. I was impressed by their performance in such a small space surrounded on all sides by the audience. Gerry Wood and Penny Woodley kept the kitchen going and the tables waited/weighted with food. Caroline Kelly kept the guests well watered with various beverages and Lorna Jappy persuaded people to buy tickets for the raffle which made a substantial contribution to the funds raised. (Approximately £1000!!). The raffle took place after a very popular game which involved seeing who could roll a pound coin nearest to a bottle of Clynelish Whisky (from Brora). The man who won was very very happy.

On Sunday and Monday I reflected that sometimes I spend as much time with my head down looking at the ground beneath my feet as the sky or the sea or the river. Down on the shore towards Portgower the small stones can look like sweeties, humbugs, and the like. While walking I was thinking about the Earth - how it spins and we do not really notice, how it constantly shifts beneath us and we hardly notice – unless there is an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. Here at Helmsdale an ancient fault line can be seen in places, the Helmsdale Fault means that one part of the Earth's crust slid under another part - how suddenly did it occur? Was it imperceptible or did it heave and crash? My favourite reading at the moment is The Excursion Guide to the Geology of East Sutherland and Caithness (eds N.H. Trewin and A. Hurst) which I found in the archive. It has detailed descriptions of the rocks etc between Golspie and Ousdale with a lot about Helmsdale. I understand hardly anything in the book at all, it is a poetical foreign language with classifications of these stones I see beneath my feet. It has no pictures so I can’t match what I see with what is described. Therefore the pictures of the rocks, stones and pebbles for this blog must wait, the photographs I have taken must be developed and printed. Then when I post them people can tell me what they are – instead of me describing them as mottled pinky orange or striped grey with an oblong of darkness in the centre.

Remember to come and see Dufi’s exhibition Teenage Kicks while it's on at Timespan, – and on Monday 24^th Jan there was an excellent Musical Response Workshop where we all had to bring our favourite LP’s with our favourite tracks and play them on an old stereo in the gallery space. I like this exhibition, Dufi (Al MacInnes and Fin Macrae) call themselves Graffiti Artists and here I see more evidence of how Graffiti Art is taken more seriously at this time than it has been for a while. The work is highly disciplined and well- thought out. Each piece functions by itself and they all work together as an installation. As you enter - on the left wall behind you there is a shelf with cans neatly ordered on top. The wall under the shelf has narrow stripes of multi-coloured paint sliding down towards the floor and a chameleon is concealed within them – I had to be shown it! Call myself an artist or what??? On the long left wall a selection of LPs are mounted – some you can take down and play on the stereo and some cannot be played because they are now works of art. On the back wall are prints of images stimulated by the lyrics from the albums that Dufi selected from their own list of about 500. On the right hand wall behind you as you enter is a stencil work which seems to hover above the gallery wall, pale blue and as fragile looking as a robin’s egg. The stereo system in the centre is placed on a cabinet which itself is placed on a square of typical living room carpet from around the 70’s. There is an armchair to sit in and headphones to listen with.

The workshop was friendly and welcoming – the two artists invited us to eat sweeties that reminded us of our childhoods, fruit salad chews and liquorice blackjacks, cola cubes and jelly gums, Tunnocks tea cakes, caramel bars and snowballs, Kool-aid from Canada and Creamola which had to be added to water and then fizzed. That reminded me of Spacedust and Flying Saucers. We then sat down and made our art works on paper embossed with the shape of a 7”single. Excellent fun was had by all – even those who insisted they could not do art demonstrated that they could.

Watching the water and “The Silver Darlings”

2011-01-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

I am watching the river and the sea - still fascinated by their unending changing characters - colours, surfaces and movements, all within a hundred metres of each other. This morning I walk up to the new (ish) A9 bridge over the river mouth and look down at both waters moving towards each other. It is low tide and the wind blows from the North-West (I think) – lifting tiny waves on the surface of the bigger ones. It chases them the opposite way and they flee skittishly out to sea and towards the approaching sun.

The water is steel gray, purple, darkening blue towards the horizon a line so straight it could have been drawn with a ruler. Close to the shore the colours change, turquoise, pale yellow, pink and green and as I walk down the path to the beach the tide begins to turn. The slope here down to the sea is steeper and the waves pull the gravel and pebbles back with them after they crash down on them. The sun is a tiny sliver of molten orange bright and far away - the clouded sky has many layers in the sun’s light – trails wisps of pink and orange, huge washes of yellow ochre almost brown and back to the blues and the grays. Behind me the rain approaches, the sea changes again and although it is not rough I am reminded of the talk the night before last given by Tony Sinclair from Wick Heritage Society about herring fishing. We watched early films from the Johnston Collection which showed Wick in the days when it was a thriving part of the fishing industry. Some of the newer boats were powered by steam and some were still sail – but the most obvious difference was the sheer number of them – the sense of busyness, of hard labour, of noise – even though the films were silent. Men carrying huge weights of coal, of fish, women gutting herrings with cloths tied round their fingers to protect themselves from the knives and the salt. This work was piece work, the more you gutted the more you got. The herring were salted as they were unloaded by the men from the boats, salted again and then packed - belly up - in wooden barrels made by the cooper at the harbour. The herring were left to settle for a week or so and then more packed on top. Tony Sinclair then showed us a short but terrifying/wonderful film of a film on a Kinora home viewer. These worked on the same principle as a child’s flick book but were operated by turning a handle at the side, only one or two people could watch at a time. The film was of the lighthouse in the harbour being swamped by storm waves – and part was of a young boy standing at the end of the harbour wall. The mechanism of the Kinora was so smooth that the separate frames could not be seen – these images were also in colour.

I thought about all of this while looking at the sea, I thought about how frightened I would be if I was out in weather like that, I thought about how hard life can be, and is, and was, for some of us. I was woken from considering all of this by a warm nose snuffling at my hand – I turned and looked down and there was a light-eyed, brindled dog looking up at me and wagging its tail . . . time to go home for a hot cup of tea.

Sunday 15 January - Timespan-Third Stay

2011-01-16T06:39:00.000-08:00

The weather was still cold when I came back on Wednesday this last week although it was not so intense - much of the snow had gone. When I looked through the photographs that I had taken here in Helmsdale before Christmas the light had a different quality then than it holds now.
In December I had said to Lorna, who works here, that what I loved about winter was the colours and yesterday we spoke again about the clarity of colour when there is snow and ice around. Violets and oranges, greens, blues and reds. Sometimes they are muted when there is mist or rain but when the sun shines and there is ice in the air they sing all around. Sing is the only word I can think of which speaks of the feeling they create- the colours resonate-resembling birdsong at dawn or robins at dusk.
Now, in January of the New Year, I am back by the River Helmsdale in the morning sun – warm and watching the water pass below the Telford Bridge. Under the arches the icicles have melted and the last of their drops rain down on the stones revealed by the ebbing tide. The resident crows take flight from the clock tower of the war memorial and clamour raucously as they swoop overhead, their wings flashing blue and black against the sky. A solitary heron beats its wings and trails its long legs behind on its way to the harbour.
At the harbour everything is quiet and still. I go to the Harbourmaster’s office and ask for tide tables so that I will know which way the water will be flowing – it is not always obvious. He comes downstairs and I mention the silent stillness. He has worked here for years and in that time the harbour has lost the last of its fishing boats because of the quotas imposed on Scottish fishermen by Europe. The restrictions have become tighter and tighter and are strangling the industry. At the moment the British public are taking more notice because of Hugh’s Fish Fighthttp://www.fishfight.net/, but how long will the impetus for change provided by celebrity input last? Jamie Oliver’s successes with the quality of school dinners have had the feet cut from under them by the latest chancellor’s spending economies.
Food – it concerns us all – not least because most people’s access to it is controlled by big business. Many people wouldn’t recognise an entire cod – still less know what to do with it once they had managed to catch it.

Wire Music- only 12 hours left to listen

2011-01-09T04:26:00.000-08:00

I listened to this programme over the New Year break and thought of the wires stretching over the car park at the clearance village at Badbea which produce an eerie and lost sound that enters the body and emphasises the sense of loneliness around. I decided to learn more and looked at the Allan Lamb website http://wiredlab.org/participants/alan-lamb.
Definite material for thinking about art.

Snowbound - Lunar Eclipse at Winter Solstice

2010-12-22T08:55:00.001-08:00

I am awake at 6.00 and listening to the news. I don't have to get up yet, I can stay cosy for a while. Then I hear the newsreader say that today's total Lunar Eclipse of the Full Moon at 7.40 am will be the first one to occur at the Winter Solstice for about 400 years. I have to get up . . .now. How did I not know about this? It wasn't on the news yesterday or if it was I missed it. I don't have my camera so I will paint draw, I have been watching the moon with regard to this residency at Helmsdale for almost 18 months now and I need to use colour because the more I watch the more colours I see. The colours flicker and change almost constantly - I know this is in response to the tiny movements that the eye makes and identifying the shifts is fascinating. So- not having the camera is good. It means the image in my memory will not be static. By the time I'm sorted at 6.30 and looking out of the upstairs window to the North-West the eclipse has started - a faint blurring at the left hand side of this huge full moon which has been so bright for the last few days. It's brilliance reflected back by the thick blanket of white snow and ice all around. I listen to the radio while I watch and hear Dr David Whitehouse talk about the moon - the solstice will be 15 hours after the eclipse he says and adds that when the Earth's shadow passes across the moon's face then some people will see it as red. This is because only light waves can bend around the earth reach the moon and they are primarily red. The moon reaches the horizon of the hill behind me so I do not see the Earth's red shadow moving away again. I go downstairs and I make my porridge - happy that I did not miss this moon.

Artist (Not Quite) in Residence

2010-12-16T01:12:00.001-08:00

Although not quite in residence, I've been in Lybster for a 6 week mixed-media residency at North Lands Creative Glass and couldn't resist a few Helmsdale visits and even an undercover test project with Rocio Jungenfeld, about more of which later. Helmsdale is in my heart, in both a romantic and a Twin Peaks kind of a way. I shot a lot of film and thought you may like to see three images from my Double Exposure project with Emily Workman - a single roll of positive transparency slide film is exposed by each of us in different countries. These were shot in Caithness and in South Wales; we hope to exhibit them next year sometime. I'll be back in January so see you all very soon and have a wonderful Christmas!

Field Studies Review

2010-11-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

Review of Field Studies exhibition written by Giles Sutherland - art critic for The Times - is available now on the Northings site. 'Part of Roberts success therefore must centre on her ability to encourage those who have deemed themselves ‘uncreative’ or ‘not artists’ to create work with depth, meaning and integrity.'

http://northings.com/2010/11/16/field-studies/

2010-11-03T02:21:00.000-07:00

One of the final parts of the Field Studies project was to do a visit to the Pier Arts Centre, Stomness, an opportunity to compare and contrast. What a visit this was! 22 people got up at the crack of dawn to take the ferry and be part of a fascinating insight into the Pier Arts. We had people from the Board, the Arts and Heritage Committees, the Staff, the Knitting Group and Volunteers. It was a thought provoking trip, at the end of what has been a thought provoking project.

But of course it has to be fun, so the ferry trip home had a Field Studies Quiz! Here is one of the joint winners beavering away.....

baffie is now OPEN!

2010-10-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd pop back for a visit to tell you that the online shop I spoke about when I was doing my residency in Timespan is now OPEN!
baffie.co.uk sells unique gifts for domestic bliss.
Also included is the lovely wee coffee table book published by Timespan, which describes what it would have been like to live in a croft house near Helmsdale in the 1800s as well as a bit about my artworks made for 'Close-Knit' and the people I worked with on the project. To find out more please click here.
I'm so excited by my new venture, hope it tickles you too!
Cheers
Julia

2010-10-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

I had to smile when I saw this photo taken at the Preview of the Field Studies exhibition, who would have thought that a small, cardboard box would create such interest! The youngest contributor was a 20 month old, and the oldest 99 years old. There are 97 boxes to look through, which by my (rough) calculations is 0.8% of the population of Sutherland. A stunning result for what has been a stunning project. I'll post more images of the exhibition soon, including my pencil wall drawings. We're now preparing to take Timespan on mass for a developmental day to The Pier Arts Centre in Stromness. Fingers crossed for a calm crossing.

2010-10-13T00:44:00.000-07:00

I have so fallen in love with this part of the world that I even went and viewed a house! This notice was pinned to one of the doors; for me, the sentiment is spot on. We are just about to start installation of the Field Studies exhibition, which means me doing lots of drawing on the walls, and I know its going to be as the notice says, so lots of coffee will be needed. Also, this whole project has been about developing Timespan's relationship with Contemporary Art, and again, I think the notice says it all. As participants bring back the most amazing boxes filled with creativity, what we can be sure of is that this exploration of Contemporary Art is certainly worth doing.

2010-10-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

So now we are at the stage that I call 'deliciously terrifying'! Will the participants bring their boxes back in time for the exhibition? I'm delighted to say that they are. Here I am in Skerray, where we had a stunning day with people delivering their boxes, collecting boxes, talking boxes and drinking tea whilst exploring boxes. We're outside, what is in my humble opinion, the bestest little Post Office and shop in the world. This day was the day the Field Studies project really came to fruition. Loved it!

2010-10-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

We have been working at a very special place - Kinbrace Primary School - where the staff and pupils have embraced the Field Studies project. This is a great poster describing our first visit. The children are really excited about visiting Timespan to see their boxes as part of the exhibition. We are now at the stage of seeing just how many of the boxes that we have given out are going to make their way back......!

2010-09-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

Exciting times! My Field Trip box is the inspiration for a major part of the Field Studies project. The idea is that participants have their own Field Trip box, to fill how they like. These will then be shown in the exhibition, displaying a creative geology of Northern Scotland. Members of the Timespan organisation - the Board, Committee members, staff and volunteers - and various communities that we have been working with, are seen collecting their boxes.

2010-09-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

So just as Peach went out 'in the field', I did. Recording by drawing, notes and collecting stones. All the work then came together in this little field trip box I made. It then became my proposal for my project, 'Field Studies'. It consists of 20 pages, which include research and how I want to conduct the project. This little box has now been shown to many people and has prompted lots of great discussions - amazing what a bit of cardboard and masking tape can do.

2010-09-20T02:06:00.000-07:00

The trip to this hotel in Assynt just had to be done. Through my research the geologists Peach and Horne had become very important to me, particularly Peach who worked in a very similar manner to an artist. There is a very famous photo of them sitting outside this hotel, whilst doing their ground breaking research of the area.

2010-09-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

Journeying is central to my practice, making maps of those travels, and I avivdly collect old maps and travel guides. In Blacks 1910 Guide Book of Scotland it has tips for 'Autobilism' i.e. driving cars, and advises "that it is when touring in the extreme north that the necessity chiefly exists for timing ones supplies." As the photo shows, 100 years later the situation is very similar. In journeying around 'the extreme north' it has taken me time to adjust to this 'timing', it is one of the things that makes here so very special.

2010-09-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that all my images have rocks in them, and that is where my research has taken me, to what is under our feet, the geologists Peach and Horne have been my inspiration. As was this, what was being exposed on a dig on Orkney - fasincating what is below us, hidden, but influencing that lie of the land.

2010-09-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

As Jean shows me it's all about understanding the lie of the land, knowing how to 'read' the stones. To me a pile of rocks, but actually they signify something far more important. It's all a case of knowing what you 'see' - very similar to contemporary art. Rocks keep cropping up in my research....

2010-09-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have been exploring the stunning, if slightly windy, landscape of Sutherland; and enjoying the delights of Lottie Glob's work.

Revue by Giles Sutherland

2010-09-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

'[Close-Knit] is a credibly fresh attempt to read a series of deeply felt historical events and circumstances from a new perspective with new materials. It succeeds both as art and as a form of social cohesion.'

Please read the whole revue here.

Close-Knit Exhibition in a nutshell

2010-09-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a wee image of all of the works in my exhibition Close-Knit. It runs until October 10th so please go and see the works in the flesh if you can.

If you'd like to know more about each piece, please click on the link below the image for more photos and information.

I would love to hear your comments?

I'm also making a wee book which will be available from the end of the month. It contains lots of lovely images and snippets of information gathered during this residency, about the lifestyle of crofters in the Highlands in the 1800s. I'm coming back to Timespan on 24th September to launch the book and talk a bit more about my experience in Helmsdale, please come?

I'll keep you posted about three other venues in the Highlands I'll also be visiting to run 'learn to knit' workshops and talk about the book.

Close-Knit Exhibition work 5

2010-09-03T00:45:00.001-07:00

The Old Chanty

The knitted bedpan is designed in the style of one that would have been used by an old or sick man who had taken to his bed. A little worse for wear and bearing the scars of its life, not functioning quite as well as it once would have, but still loved and cared for.

Jean Sargent gets it!

Close-Knit Exhibition work 4

2010-09-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

One Perfectly Good Bucket

I found this bucket in one of the croft ruins in Wester Helmsdale. It had no bottom on it and a big hole in the side. The crofters were (and still are) extremely resourceful and frugal, and would mend what they could before replacing it. This bucket would have been a vital piece of equipment, so I mended it by weaving it a new bottom and wrapping the hole at the side with string. It's now a perfectly good bucket again...for everything except liquid!...and is valued once more, transformed from the rejected to the treasured.

If you'd like to see what this bucket looked like when I found it and how the work was created, please read this earlier blog.

Close-Knit Exhibition work 3

2010-09-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

For Your Own Good

I made this work with the help of some children from the local primary children and the knitting group, who meet weekly in Timespan.

The knitted installation is inspired by Badbea, a deserted clearance village 6 miles up the road from Helmsdale. Though Badbea is a dramatically stunning spot, it is windswept, rocky and desperately near an extremely high cliff edge. It is said that the families were so nervous their children would accidentally fall of the cliff, they tethered them to posts and rocks while they were out playing.

According to the 1841 Census, when Badbea was at its busiest, there were 21 children under 10yrs living there and so we have knitted 21 bootees and 3 large boulders, which aim to tell this story.

For Your Own Good was created by myself and:

Children

Emilee Mae Simpson

Findlay Adams

Imogen Roberts

Isobel Kelly

Maddy Cowie

Megan Booth

Thalia Adams

Knitting Group

Alison Oliver

Anne Sinclair

Betty Kelly

Gerry Wood

Ina D.S. Macpherson

Jean Sargent

Joan Murray

Linda Letton

Lisa MacDonald

Lorna Jappy

Muriel Emey

Penny Woodley

Ros Hulme

Ruth Mackay

Sandra Jennison

Passing the baton!

2010-08-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well it's more of a geological hammer than a baton!

But just as Julia goes, I arrive, and we share the delights of the Games together.

Julia's exhibition is stunning and very powerful, I urge you to come and see it.

So, I'm now at what I call that deliciously terrifying stage of a project. Done the research, got the ideas, put forward the proposal - now I just have to do it.

And the hammer? Ah come back for the next blog, and all will be revealed.

Close-Knit Exhibition work 2

2010-08-25T08:38:00.001-07:00

Foxglove Croft

Made collaboratively with Lorna Jappy

This spoof Estate Agent’s window display is accompanied by a document, which aims to sell the idea of living in a croft in Badbea, a deserted clearance village 6 miles up the road, whilst, at the same time, describing what it might have been like to live in one of the most challenging clearance sites during the 1800s.

The document will be included in a publication to complement this exhibition, available from 24th September 2010 from Timespan's shop or my online gift shop www.baffie.co.uk

Close-Knit Exhibition work 1

2010-08-25T08:34:00.001-07:00

Keep The Fires Burning

Made collaboratively with Christine Cowie

The two gable ends, pictured in the light-boxes, were both found in Wester Helmsdale and are brilliant examples of the skill and creativity of the crofters. Virtually nothing remains of these crofts except for these vitally important fireplaces. But with these, we can imagine a glimpse of what it would have been like to live in these homes. The hearth was the focus of indoor family life, around which the whole family would spend their evenings. The crofters would never have let the fire go out. For this work I installed warming flowers and smoky grasses, in order to recreate that focus point and create a ‘memorial’ for the heart of these homes. The space in which these works are housed is the same dimension as a croft (3/4 size).

Edwyn Collins, the 2010 Chieftain at the Helmsdale Highland Games

2010-08-24T03:06:00.000-07:00

The day after my opening was The Helmsdale Highland Games. Myself, my husband, Colin Usher, and dog Becca had a brilliant day watching the antics.

It was a moving procession, with Edwyn Collins walking all the way up to the games from right outside my front door on Dunrobin Street.

The other highlight for me had to be the tug of war, with local lads heaving with all their might whilst still managing to hang on to a can of tennent's and smoke a fag!

Close-Knit Opening

2010-08-24T02:34:00.000-07:00

The exhibition opening was a huge success, with 56 people attending, including kids. I was delighted!

Director of Timespan, Nicola Henderson, kindly opened the exhibition with a few words and this was promptly followed by a brilliant and hilarious speech by my good friend Christine Cowie. She claimed that she was 'a humble Maths Teacher on the bottom rung of the Arts Ladder' but she has helped me enormously throughout my residency and I hope, that I may have helped her to climb up that ladder just a little.

I also said a few words about the individual works and how the ideas had come about. People seemed to listen...

Even the kids!

Once the speeches were out of the way visitors spent some time exploring the works.

Of course, Jean Sargent quickly realised that my bedpan was indeed not a hat!

The wee ones turned my room containing the light-boxes into a disco...

...and visitors actually spent time reading my spoof Estate Agents document rather than just quaffing the free wine and crab pate nibbles (Thank you!)...

...I left Helmsdale on a high!

Badbea inspired piece

2010-08-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

Installing Badbea inspired piece made with the help of the knitting group and children from Helmsdale Primary School...getting there!

Back at Timespan and preparing for install

2010-08-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

An evening spent boiling rope in tea!

Install week at Timespan

2010-08-14T10:02:00.001-07:00

I'm heading back up to Helmsdale on Monday for one final week. I'll miss this place!

It's install week for the exhibition 'Close-Knit' so I'm feeling excited to see how it all comes together. It looks good in my head but...

I've designed it so that you will be taken on a bit of a journey through the gallery space, down a small corridor and into a room, which is actually exactly 3/4 of the size of a particular croft I have been exploring. I had hoped to make it full size but, even though it's tiny and would have fitted in the gallery (can you believe it? A whole house!) there wouldn't have been much room left for the other works.

I hope that people aren't put off by this corridor and slightly small dark space as, through this room, you will find several other works, made by me with the help of many local people, and also a stunning view of the river.

Please come if you can?

Final week

2010-08-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

It was my final week as Artist in Residence in Timespan last week. The next time I go up will be to install the exhibition (opens 20th August), so it was a frantic week, trying to get everything finished. I nearly managed too! Though it did mean working from 8 in the morning to midnight every day!!

I was extremely pleased with the knitting group and kids, who have been helping me make a piece of work. They've done a sterling job and managed to achieve what I thought initially to be an ambitious amount of work. 21 pairs of booties have been knitted, the exact number of children who lived in Badbea in 1841 I'm led to believe, so that's spot on. The group even met for a second time during the week to help me put together all of the knitted squares into something that resembled big stones (for the booties to be tied to so the children won't fall off the cliff!).

The piece will be called 'For your Own Good'

There's a lot of 'good's in my titles: 'One perfectly Good Bucket' and 'One perfectly Good Bedpan', I asked their opinion of this and they said 'It's all good!'

One perfectly good bucket...coming up!

2010-07-29T02:38:00.000-07:00

Walking to Portgower and back again

2010-07-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

Five – Portgower, Lothbeg, Helmsdale – I cross the bridge but instead of turning right up to the farm I continue past Gartymore and turn right on to an overgrown farm track. I cross a stone bridge over a burn running rapid and brown. I turn left and climb through scrub land on a stony path – there is a buzzard sitting on a pylon – it does not move. I climb over a gate and see a tumbledown croft on the right which is bigger then most and in better condition. I climb over another gate and follow another path which hugs the side of the hill and cross over the burn again on a flat wooden bridge and walk towards Raven Rock Road. Afterwards I am told the name of the road by Penny (Arts Committee) and Jean (Chairman) thinks that the field between me and the croft is called Fox Meadow. This part of the walk has been intense with colour and atmosphere, I can’t remember any noise or birdsong – I think I must have been concentrating so much on finding the way that my eyes were my focus of attention and I did not listen. I cross the A9 and walk through Portgower then turn down to the beach. Portgower is tiny, some houses detached and some in a terrace with their land on the other side of the narrow road. There are gardens here, flowers, vegetables, pigs, chicken and sheep – there is a hum of people talking and dishes clattering, a TV shouts from an open window. To reach the beach I cross the railway line then sit on a rock, drink my water and eat a sandwich. The air feels soft and again the world is silver grey and calm. I walk towards Lothbeg then realise that today I will not have time to reach there so I begin to walk back along the beach to Helmsdale beside the railway line. I take photographs of the stones. Pinks, yellows, greens, greys, blues and blacks – worn smooth and rounded granite veins circle them and some erode in such a way that they look like distorted heads. I find one piece of sandstone that has a slice taken from its surface, I turn it over and there is a sunset coloures within the stone. Julia (Timespan’s Artist in Residence) tells me that such stones are found here often. I never find another. The walk back takes three hours, partly because of taking photographs and also because the tide is in and I have to scramble over rocks and shingle. This I don’t mind – on the way I find two beautiful sticks of wood, one curved and one straight – I am surrounded by a moving cloud of Oystercatchers which wheep at me because I am near their eggs and chicks. I see the chicks fluffy and desperately running away ahead of me, and I see two clutches of eggs – pale green/grey with freckles. I do not touch them or stop to look – the birds are agitated enough already. The rain begins and I am drenched, I keep my head down to make sure I don’t tread on any eggs and slowly become aware of a new bird call which I did not hear straightaway as my hood was up. I have not seen these birds before, there is a flock of around 30 around me and they look as though they have been attracted by the Oystercatchers’ alarm calls and are attacking their chicks and eggs. I feel awful and then I realise they are also attacking me. They swoop down and scream around me, banking up into the air before turning back to have another go. They’re absolutely beautiful – their tail is forked and flows behind them and they dive and climb sharp and swift. I will look them up in my book when I get back. I watch them for a while then move on. When I pass below Gartymore they leave me alone. By the time I reach Helmsdale I have been soaked three times and have mostly dried off. I am exhilarated. I look the birds up, a choice between Artic Terns and Artic Skuas – because of their size I choose the Skuas.

The Land and the Sea: Alastair Cook

2010-07-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

On the 29th July, I open my new exhibition, The Land and the Sea, at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Leith, Edinburgh. Since showing Sutherland | Caithness at Timespan this year, the support from the gallery has been wonderful, and we release a postcard pack to celebrate The Land and the Sea. The Land and the Sea draws together work I made in Sutherland and in Caithness, alongside other photographic work from the Eastern Seaboard. I'm also lucky enough to be returning to Helmsdale in early August, to begin a project surveying a number of ice houses, about which I am irrationally excited! I cannot tell you how much the support of Timespan means to me in my development as an artist.

Lindisfarne, Northumberland.

Forse, Caithness.

Tyningham, East Lothian.

Berwick Upon Tweed, Northumberland.

Berriedale, Caithness.

Plan for the week

2010-07-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

Back to Helmsdale tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see how the knitting group and kids are getting on with helping make an installation for the exhibition.

Busy week ahead returning fires to the fireplaces in a couple of ruins in Wester Helmsdale for photographic works.

Featured on Man Shops Globe for the Sundance Channel

2010-07-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed by Man Shops Globe on the Sundance Channel last year to be featured in a programme about Edinburgh. I can't see a clip of the programme online yet but there are photos of me and my work, including these chandeliers titled 'A Wee Bit of Light Relief', which I made collaboratively with artists Clare Waddle and Rebecca Wilson. I'll keep you posted if I spot a clip.

Walking Weather

2010-07-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Four - Eldrable Hill – I cross the Telford Bridge over the river and then the railway and follow the road up and around West Helmsdale towards a small farm where there is a track towards Eldrable Hill. At first the track is narrow and enclosed on either side by yellow gorse then there is turf and hill and sky, heather and peat, tiny bog flowers I have never seen before - and a whole herd of red deer which run as I approach, bounding away and springing over a fence then out of sight over Creag a’ Choire. Today the wind is strong and constant in my face the clouds in the sky hang low and rain threatens. When I have followed the deer I cannot see the path behind me and I move into a new place of land and sky all around – no sea or sound of the sea. The river is hidden in the strath below so I look over to the North over Caen Hill, Solus Craggie and Cnoc Meadhonach and I see Morven - triangular peak blue and pointing to the sky. The hills all advance and recede according to the light, sometimes they seem more sheer and close and at other times it is almost as though they are at rest – stilled - a vast stone sea, it’s motion so slow according to our vision that we can only sense it with another part of our being. All the colours of the world are muted, purple and green grey and brown and I can hear nothing apart from the wind. I try to find the track that cuts down past Creag an Taghain and passes through Gartymore before returning to Helmsdale but I cannot. So I climb no further, I finish - deafened by the wind and turn back home the way I have come – chased there by the rain.

Edwyn Collins live and direct

2010-07-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that I would be kicking back in Timespan with a glass of vino and listening to a live rendition of 'Rip it up' by the main man himself, Edwyn Collins!A bizarre but welcome opportunity, which I will never forget!
Thanks Edwyn

An explanation of sorts

2010-07-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

As well as these longer walks I go out from Timespan each day and walk over the Telford Bridge and up around West Helmsdale and Gartymore, then back down to Helmsdale via either the A9 bridge or the beach and the path beside the river. The River Helmsdale is quite narrow and as it passes beneath the two bridges before reaching the sea its level becomes a focus for my attention. I begin to watch the water closely, noting its ebbs and flows, the difference in its surface according to weather and light – the vegetation and animal life around – the stones and sand on the river bed that are revealed twice each day. The summer nights are light and this year the sky is overcast much of the time, during this stay I never see the moon but can guess its nearness to the Earth by the height of the water under the bridge. Before coming here I thought that any work I made would contain elements like water and processes like time - and now watching the tidal flow of the river I decide that water and time and place will be the focus.

Water notes (images)

2010-07-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

Fifth day - Navidale beach and farm

2010-07-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

There is a soft grey and silver sky and silver smooth water, where both meet at the horizon is hidden - blurred except where far away patches of light mirror the sun. No wind today and tiny waves fold clear and quiet on stone and sand and rock that looks white sheets laid out to dry. Duck families swim and dive, bobbing up in turn, gulls swoop and scream and cormorants spread their wings. There are butterflies, black spiders, beetles, bees all buzzing in the warm air. Climb the green hill behind and up from the beach -lush with grass that soaks the feet. A path leads through part of the farm beside a deep calm pool that reflects the sky above then tracks past a walled and gated graveyard to the road beyond.

Walk to Navidale

2010-07-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

Crackaig Beach

2010-07-02T05:17:00.001-07:00

Crackaig Beach. Sheep cropped turf with minute flowers behind the dunes, caravans mostly empty some look abandoned, concrete structures left over from the war, sand and stone beach, rock pools, cormorants and shags, plovers and oyster catchers, a dead seal and dead barn owl beyond, one white wing blowing upright against the wind, salt crusts on the stones, black marked rocks like paint spilled – this part of the Earth rests on one of the many fault lines in Scotland. On the beaches you can see where one part of the world has slipped under another – some of the rocks spread out like quilts on the sand, some recline on one arm and resemble figures in the sun, others angle upward - sharp and dark splitting easily and revealing ancient fossils within – the stones in the rock pools are like jewels in the shining water.

Images

2010-07-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Birch trees Gorse coloured River Helmsdale Water Colour

Finally managed to get Time

2010-07-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

A blog which looks back over my shoulder– a blog for the time span between 2^nd and 28^th June.

This is not something I do so much now – writing I mean. So basically it will be a list of where I have been in and around Helmsdale during the first part of my RSA Residency at Timespan in June. The second part of the residency will take place in November and December of this year. It’s interesting thinking about how ideas for work begin. Before coming I had already thought about how I would investigate the passage of time, light nights and dark days, the movement of the tides and the difference between fresh and salt water. Now I was here in this remote harbour town on the north east coast of Sutherland with some basic knowledge about how and why the town had come into being and some ideas for beginning work. What follows is parts of my memory of being here. Weather permitting I will visit these places again in the winter and definitely visit the people I have met.

Places (Images to follow)

Walk One – Walk to Marrel between the hill Creag Marail and the River Helmsdale. The hill of Creag Bun-Uilidh on the other side of the river behind the town is coloured by the striking deep yellow of gorse – the blue sky makes the yellow stronger. Smell of coconut – except that really coconut smells like gorse because the scent of gorse was here first. Greens of willows, birches, sycamores, broom and grasses. Wild flowers blowing, bird song, sheep bleating, lambs running, insects buzzing, fish jumping and water flowing. A silent landscape full of noise.

Badbae: How many people can you cram into a 4m x 2.5m house?

2010-06-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm working from my home in East Lothian this week, but still thinking about the life of the crofters. One thing that's really struck me is how whole families could live together in such a small space!

I went to visit Badbae, where, in 1793, around 80 people belonging to 12 families were sent after being evicted from Langwell, Ousdale and Berriedale.

'The twelve families were moved to the sloping cliffs of Badbea, where they were forced to create makeshift houses and a new community from scratch. Badbea lay between a great stone wall, designed to protect the landowner's flocks of sheep, and the edge of dangerous cliffs above Berriedale. The Clearances, one of the most cruel and hotly debated periods in the history of the Highlands, were happening.' (Badbea website)

I've been looking at the census from 1841 to try and work out who lived with whom. Having seen the ruins and realised that they are only around 4 metres by 2.5 metres, I can only begin to imagine the squash!

This must have been an extremely close-knit community. I like that expression 'close-knit'. It seems to describe the situation well. Might call my exhibition and publication that. Hmmm.

Anyway, if you are interested, here are my findings:

Age (youngest first) and houses of people living at Badbea, according to the census of 1841 as documented on the Badbea families website:

Family house 1

Jean Sutherland: 20, John Sutherland: 25, Betty Sutherland: 25, Esther Gunn (nee Sutherland): 45, Charlotte Sutherland: 51, Margaret Polson: 60 (Total 6)

Family house 2

Catherine Erving: 12 (the only person there from England), George Sutherland: 18, James Sutherland: 20, Rose Cormack: 20, Catherine Gunn: 29 (or 30?), Christian Sutherland: 51 (or 45?) (was married to George Gunn), John Gunn: 55 (or 50?) (fisherman and widower), Jean Sutherland: 60, Donald Christian Bruce: 60, Christian Bruce: 60 (nee McLeod) (Total 10. Odd mix of names though?)

Family house 3

John Gunn: 10 (?), Margaret McPherson: 12 (visiting?), David Gunn: 13 (?), Jean (Jane) Gunn (nee Polson): 40 (wife of George), George Gunn: 40 (fisherman), David Sutherland: 70 (Total 6)

Family house 4:

George Gunn: 1, Mary Gunn: 2, David Gunn: 4, Jane Gunn: 6, Christina Sutherland: 8, John Gunn: 8, Christian Gunn: 14 (servant to her brother John!?), Catherine Sutherland: 20 (niece), John Gunn: 30 (shoemaker), Catherine Sutherland: 35 (married to John Gunn), John Sutherland: 45, Elizabeth (Betty) Sutherland: 50 (John’s sister) (Total 12. Odd mix of names. Perhaps 2 houses?)

Family house 5

David Sutherland: 2, Alexander Sutherland: 4, John Sutherland: 7, Isabella Sutherland: 9, Catherine Sutherland: 10, David Sutherland: 30 (farmer), Johanna Sutherland (nee Sutherland): 30 (Total 7)

Family house 6

Ann Grant: 2, John Grant: 4, Betty Grant: 8, Gordon Grant 35, Georgina Grant (nee Gunn): 35, Elizabeth Grant 40 (Gordon’s sister?) (Total 6)

Family house 7

Ann Henderson: 2, Barbara Henderson: 5, William Henderson: 9, Katherine Henderson: 15, Anne Henderson: 40, Robert Henderson 45 (Total 6)

More houses

Margaret Gunn: 10, Christian Mcleod: 10, Christian Bannerman: 10 (born outside the area), William Gunn: 12, Ann Duncan: 12, Betty Gunn: 15, Janet McIver: 15, Robert Matheson: 15, George Duncan: 16, John Grant: 17, William Duncan: 18, Alexander Gunn: 20, Betty Duncan: 20, Donald Matheson: 20, William McKay: 20, George Gunn: 25, Charlotte Sutherland: 29, Mary McIver: 40, Hugh Matheson: 40, David McIver: 50 (Total 20. 3 or 4 houses perhaps?)

Customs House and Heathcote Bed & Breakfast

2010-06-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

Well, tonight is my last night staying at Customs House B&B, and a fine week it's been with abundant breakfasts and an extremely kind and considerate owner. Above is the stunning view from my room, a constant source of entertainment. Thanks for your hospitality Anne!

Thanks too to Janice, who put me up in Heathcote last week. She makes the best scrambled eggs and ensured that there was a constant supply of home grown lettuce and strawberries in my room. Another wonderful and generous woman!

Everyone here, in fact, is so friendly and helpful. When you live in, or near, a city you get used to only saying hello to people once you get a certain distance away from a road, on a beach say, or up a mountain. The whole of Helmsdale is a 'hello zone' I have noticed. How refreshing.

One for Colin Usher

2010-06-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

I took this photo for my husband, Colin Usher, a highly talented digital media chap, who is slaving away in his Bluemungus office in Leith, while I swan off to do some knitting, read stories about bygone crofting days and wonder the hills 'documenting' ruins.

Walking in Wester Helmsdale and Gartymore

2010-06-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

Went for a lovely stroll with Aileen Stackhouse yesterday. We dondered up the hill for three and a half hours! Didn't get very far though because we both kept stopping to inspect every little detail.

More details about my project - Julia Douglas

2010-06-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

I am artist in residence at Timespan for 7 weeks, over June and July 2010, creating an exhibition (open 21^st August – 10^th October 2010) and a publication.

My work is usually inspired by the home and the relationship people have with the objects they put in them to make them their own. While I am here I plan to focus my attention on the history of Sutherland crofts and the crofter’s lifestyle and share some of the stories I collect about their lives, by pondering the relationship they had with their homes and the objects they put in them, and playfully transforming these into mixed media artworks. I'm thinking of constructing some sort of installation in the gallery and also making a lovely coffee table book packed with inspirational images and snippets of gathered stories.

I'm also going to work with enthusiastic members of the knitting group, who meet on a weekly basis in Timespan, and a handful of children from Helmsdale Primary School. I'm hoping they will be willing and able to help me make a piece for the exhibition. This cross-generational collaboration will not only help to develop closer relationships between the generations but also allow the knitting group to hand down some of their traditional skills to a younger generation, keeping these skills alive.

Tide Times

2010-06-14T02:46:00.000-07:00

Watching the river every day, both upstream and downstream - documenting its movement using cameras -the local tide times are a guide for this but I have noticed they are not always exact. For tide times click here

Julia Douglas returns to Timespan

2010-06-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

How exciting to be the first to write something on this blog...and I'm not even staying in the flat...yet!

I'll explain more as I go, but first, some highlights from my journey from East Lothian to Helmsdale Sutherland:

The sculptural train wash and fantastic ceiling in Perth station

Just leaving Inverness

And finally, my traveling companion (I think he was a trainspotter. He had a wee notebook and guide and was clearly chuffed to have spotted something!)(I do apologize if he spots this!)

Arrived in Helmsdale with a ridiculously heavy bag, plus camera bag, plus laptop bag, totally knackered!

I came up last August for a two week residency, invited by Timespan and Claudia Zeiske from Finefunds, to write a proposal for a future residency and here I am. I am artist in residence here for 2 months, so I'll try and keep this blog up to date with my progress.

I'm not staying in the flat for the first couple of weeks because artist, Aileen Stackhouse, is also here, for a residency funded by the Royal Scottish Academy, and is already settled in the flat.

I'll write again soon and tell you a bit about my aims for the residency. if you want to know more about who I am, I also have my own blog, which you can read here

Cheerio for now
Julia