Public Art Installations
Comissioned by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar / Sgoiltean Ura LLP / FMP Construction as part of the Western Isles Schools Project. Selection process facilitated by an Lanntair Locations - Planning your tour
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1. Sgoil an Taobh Siar (West Side Primary School), Isle of Lewis Art Installation by Helen Denerley
2. Ard-sgoil MhicNeacail (The Nicolson Institute), 5 Isle of Lewis Art Installation by Donald Urquhart
3. Sgoil an Rubha (Point Primary School), Isle of Lewis Art Installations by Sasha Ward 6 4. Sgoil nan Tairbert (Sir E Scott School), Isle of Harris Art Installation by Steve Dilworth
5. Sgoil Bhaile a’ Mhanaich (Balivanich Primary School), Isle of Benbecula Art Installation by Ginny Hutchison
6. Sgoil Dhalabroig (Daliburgh Primary School), Isle of South Uist Art Installation by Heinrich and Palmer Ravens by Helen Denerley 1
As West Side Primary school replaces two existing schools I felt that my first task was to find a common thread between them.
What became clear from these sessions was a real appreciation of the surrounding environment. The children are very knowledgeable about the wildlife around them. While driving through the machair three ravens swooped and dived across the road in front of me. I went home and researched the cultural history of ravens in Scotland and worldwide. The more I found out, the more interesting they became. These endlessly fascinating and intelligent creatures are the most written about of any bird. They are associated with wisdom, a fitting symbol for a school.
“Raven’s knowledge” means to see and know all; “Tha gliocas an ceann an fhithich” a saying from the Hebrides means, “There is wisdom in a raven’s head”. This project proved a valuable exercise in changing people’s perception of ravens and the sculpture symbolises not only wisdom and intelligence but a shared celebration of the natural world.
Helen Denerley lives and works in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. She has been a professional sculptor for over thirty years and is known for her many large public works in Britain and abroad. She has worked on commissions in Japan, South Georgia and Europe and has smaller works in many private and public collections. Her medium is scrap metal and the subject matter; usually the animal world. She is most well known in Scotland for her giraffes outside the Omni Centre in Edinburgh. She has undertaken many collaborations with poets, other artists and most recently scientists looking at environmental conflicts. Colour Lines by Donald Urquhart 2
The work, COLOUR LINES, takes as its starting point the Hugh MacDiarmid poem, Scotland Small ? (1943). In this work MacDiarmid urges a way of seeing in the landscape which allows the appreciation of detail and colour. The pupils at the Nicolson Institute were asked to adopt that way of seeing in the development of the work. Through a series of workshops conducted by the Stornoway based artist, Christine Morrison, a range of over 70 pupils, from across all the year groups, went on visits to the Castle Grounds to photograph and record colour in the landscape. Further computer-based workshops looked at extracting colour samples from digital images. The forty elements were fabricated to Urquhart’s specification by Inscape Joinery, with forty individual triangular elements this allowed one hundred and twenty colours. Selected by the pupils, these were to be used in the work. Each colour was mixed to match the pixel colours before Urquhart hand painted each face of each element. One hundred and twenty colours from the landscape of Lewis brought together by the pupils in one work at the heart of the Nicolson Institute.
Donald Urquhart is an Edinburgh-based artist whose work, encompassing a wide range of media, first began to make an impact in the early 1990’s. He has held solo exhibitions at the Model Gallery and the Butler Gallery in Ireland; Solvberget in the Kulturhuis in Stavanger, Norway; The Orchard Gallery in Derry; Lionheart Gallery in Boston, USA; as well as Inverleith House, the Talbot Rice Gallery and The City Art Centre in Edinburgh. He was included in the survey exhibition Here+ Now, Scottish Art 1990 - 2000, organised by Dundee Contemporary Arts. In 2007, Urquhart installed Recurring Line : North/South - a permanent artwork within the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. Whilst grounded in the discipline of drawing, his practice has diversified in recent years, with work taking form in both landscape and architectural contexts. Screens Filled with Patterns by Sasha Ward 3
As soon as I saw the plans of the new primary school, I wanted to fill the huge glass screens at its entrance with pattern and colour. On my visit to the three schools on Point, I asked the children to draw and describe aspects of the local area, and was delighted to discover that they, like me, had a preference for strong colours and intricate patterns. I constructed my screen design by tracing a web from the outlines of lichen on a stone on the moor, and filled this web with patterns derived from aspects of the surrounding landscape, including an eared willow that I saw growing flat against another rock.
The layers, consisting of an opaque orange enamel, a transparent green enamel and a sandblasted line drawing of the willow, are laminated between the two thick layers of glass and appear quite different from the back and the front, with the colours making a link between the building and the moor that surrounds it. I saw the three layers as symbolic of the three primary schools at Bayble, Knock and Aird joining together, and the opening of the buds of the willow into star shaped flowers as an echo of the pupils as they grow and develop.
Sasha Ward works in the field of architectural glass and has completed over seventy commissions for public buildings throughout The British Isles. The first of these was for Lansdowne Hospital, Cardiff in 1986 and the most recent for The House of Lords in 2012. Works in Scotland include windows for Edinburgh’s Sheriff Court and The State Hospital in Carstairs. She trained in the traditional skills of fine art and stained glass (at The Central School of Art, London, Trent Polytechnic & The Royal College of Art, London) and continually adapts the methods and materials she uses to suit the needs of modern architecture and the preferences of her clients. Bronze Egg by Steve Dilworth 4
As a community project I felt it important to involve all the pupils from the entire school in a direct way. Drawing on the concept of a ‘seed’ I created a rippled form that connected to the shapes left by the sea in the sand and into these ripples inlaid soft clay. In this clay, all the pupils, from the youngest to the oldest, were invited to press their fingers each leaving their similar but unique marks. This fragile sculpture was immediately sent to Pangolin foundry, cast and turned into bronze, with the green patina reflecting the marine environment of Sir E Scott School.
It was interesting that when the original clay work arrived at the foundry one of the people working there, a Maori, found a parallel with a custom carried out in his home country, that of when setting out on a long and dangerous fishing trip all the crew would press their fingers into a ball of clay, leaving this behind for when they returned. I would hope that many years from now some will find pleasure, on their return, remembering and feeling the marks and indentations left as a permanent reminder of being part of the adventure of the new school.
Born in Yorkshire, 1949, Steve Dilworth moved to the island of Harris in 1983, where he has lived and worked since. His work has been displayed internationally, in Chicago, Illinois, Hawaii and Germany. In 2002, Steve’s work was featured in ‘Thinking Big’ at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. His ‘Worlds in a Box’ exhibition organized by the South Bank Centre became a UK Touring exhibition for The British Arts Council. Steves work incorporates the landscape in all it’s forms, from ancient rock formations, metals and timber to the skeletal remains of animals and other naturally found objects, which he sometimes encases within his sculptural work. Tir mo gharidh by Virginia Hutchison 5
Tir mo ghraidh / Land of my love is a sculpture and film, produced in collaboration with the pupils of Balivanich Primary. Upon visiting the school and the islands, I was drawn to the landscape and environment in which the school and pupils reside. After workshops with the children, the understanding that the pupils have for the land, brought about the title of the piece and the appearance it would eventually take.
The sculpture takes the form of a 20 metre tide line and is cast in aluminium using a mobile furnace. The individual tidal patterns were cast, in-situ on a nearby beach, with the pupils of the new school and attempt to merge the boundaries between the natural and built forms. The sculpture is entwined with the fabric of the new school, weaving from inside to outside around the pupil courtyard and communal spaces. The positioning of which, offers a playful movement of shadows cast back into the classrooms and circulation spaces throughout the day. A film of the project was also produced and is accompanied by a call and response soundtrack recorded by the school choir at Lionacleit recording studio. Inscriptions from the soundtrack’s text are also displayed on each aluminium form and this poem can be read through following the sculpture on its path around the courtyard.
Virginia Hutchison graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2005. Recent projects include: Walking woman sending a kiss, Cuth, Queens Park Railway Club, Glasgow (2103), In the Shadow of the Hand, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art (2012) – with Sarah Forrest, The Turra Coo Sculpture Projects, Aberdeenshire (2010) – with Charles Engebretsen & David Blyth, 7 sunsets, Re- imagining the Centre / IOTA, Inverness (2009), Cumbernauld : A Town for Tomorrow (2009). Hutchison has recently been awarded an international research position at Alfred University in New York, and is an artist based at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Zoom by Heinrich + Palmer 6
Zoom is a series of double-sided, photographic light boxes that have been created for the main reception area and corridor of Daliburgh Primary School. The photographic imagery focuses on macro views of tiny samples of sand, plants and other particles collected from the Machair and shoreline of South Uist. The images have been printed onto Duratran and illuminated from behind. The artists worked with the architect to integrate the light box design into the fabric of the building, creating an internal light source so the light boxes could be seen from both sides of the partition wall.
The school were keen that the new artworks would bring light and colour into the space and provide a welcoming focal point to the main entrance reception area. After a period of consultation with the staff and students at Daliburgh and a week exploring the island, the artists developed a proposal that embraced some of these aspirations.
Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer are two UK based artists who have worked collaboratively since 1991. They take a site-specific approach to making their artworks which evolve in response to a place and its unique qualities. Light, projection, photography, glass and optics are frequently used in their artworks to open up, transform and blur the boundaries of built space. They have worked as Lead Artists on a number of major art projects and have experience of working as part of a design team to integrate artworks from an early stage and advise on design issues. Further information on their work can be found at www.heinrichpalmer.co.uk