Unraveling the story of string: people, plants and place This multi faceted, year long project involved collaboration with archaeologists, musicians, a poet and others as well as working closely with the archivist at Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, ATLAS arts and Viewfield Community Gardens. It was supported by Creative Scotland and had a number of outcomes throughout the year including talks, string ceilidh gatherings, exhibition and publication. Discussing the piece 'Lost Knowledge', which is based on the Quipu String by Caroline Dear The project investigated our entanglement with making string from local materials for over 50,000 years. Dr. Karen Hardy is an archaeologist specialising in the Palaeolithic and we worked together sharing our individual specialist knowledge. From these discussions I developed an interest in these early examples of evidence of string making and made a number of replicas. The project developed through discussions with Catherine McPhee, the archivist at Skye and Lochalsh archives, delving into written evidence and bringing different artefacts from their collection together, in particular the tweed sample books. Working with members and trustees of the Viewfield Garden Collective we made a series of ropes which were installed in key locations in the garden and have been used as part of the sensory trail that they are developing. Net sections made using a variety of materials and knots inspired by archaeological nets The project reached a wider audience through the string ceilidh gatherings which entailed music (songs related to spinning, rope making), poetry (inspired by rope making), archaeological evidence, local stories (relating to string and rope making) and making. There is also a blog documenting different aspects of the project, https://carolinedearstring.blogspot.com/ Specialist textile archaeologist Dr. Susanna Harris from Glasgow University and Dr. Tuija Kirkinen from the University of Helsinki have also been involved. Images from the String Ceilidhs The final exhibition includes archive artefacts, new work by myself, wall texts as well as poems by Katharine Macfarlane who I collaborated with in developing the publication ‘fragments’ which accompanies the exhibition. The exhibition is structured in five sections; i) monile phone 'seic', ii) red thread - healing necklace, dandelion and bog cotton, iii) detail of 'Lost Knowledge' Section one - Árcéolas reflects on archaeological string fragments, the evidence we have from archaeology Section two - Sìomanaiche investigates the ravelings and unravelings of ropemaking, the materials and processes with reference to the Highlands of Scotland in particular Section three - Tomhas explores marking, measurement and maths in relation to string   Section four - Creideamh highlights the metaphysical aspects of string, its mystical and magical properties  Section five - Beag-fhaclair is a glossary of words connected with string mostly in Gaelic which highlight these lost everyday connections handling the 'seic', grain sacks were made using this technique Textile by Katherine Macfarlane The book ‘Fragments’, which was created as part of this project, is available for sale here. More information about the project - Online talks: HAF 2021 - Caroline Dear and Dr. Karen Hardy  String: the first 50,000 years  HAF 2022 - Caroline Dear, Dr. Susanna Harris and Dr.Tuija Kirkinen Plants, Thread and Textiles - archaeological perspective  Blog Highlife Highland Atlas Arts Installation at Viewfield Garden Collective ...

17 April, 2023

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column 0=""][vc_column_text] Exhibition at Timespan Helmsdale, Scotland 19th November 2016 to 5th February 2017 I am drawn to peatland by its qualities of seeming to be both nothing and everything, it has a quality of otherness. At first the bogland seems like there is nothing there, a wet dessert. On looking close, you see the multitude of intertwined plant life and the quiet workings of sphagnum. Timespan commissioned me to make a peat wall drawing for the exhibition A Layered Land, an exhibition about the peatland for which this area is renown.   For this I responded to the space, the subject and the location by making a wall piece, floor to ceiling, 3m high by 0.8 m wide with embedded text, in Latin, of 12 of the common plants found in the peatland around Helmsdale. This is made from building up many thin layers of peat which are applied directly to the gallery wall.     The work in the exhibition also includes screenprints which are made using peat as the ink as well as the subject matter, one piece consists of individual sphagnum drawings sceenprinted onto small found glass shelves.   Another work is a series of twelve small square wooden boards each with built up of layers of peat combined with gold leaf abstract forms influenced by the marks left on the peatland from peatcutting.   [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]...

15 May, 2017

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column 0=""][vc_column_text] Liminal / Cupar Arts Festival Cupar, Scotland June 2016 Step into another world Peatland is a place of transition, it was a liminal space for our ancestors who placed offerings of gold, weapons and tools in the mysterious bog. I am interested in increasing awareness of the raised bog habitat near Cupar. This particular habitat is typical of lowland areas and used to cover a large expanse in central Scotland along the river Tay. It was up to 10m above the surrounding level of the landscape and was cleared in the 18th century. Peatland is very good as a filter, removing many pollutants from water and is really important as a carbon store. The central belt of Scotland has one of the most significant concentrations of surviving raised bog in Western Europe. This piece ‘step into another world’ was an immersive installation in a large room in the County Buildings in Cupar. Visitors walked around a hanging quadrat above a peat soaked cloth 2m by 2m with a woven quadrat, 1m by 1m in front and each piece only used the plants from that particular habitat. The quadrat is used by botanists to identify all plants within a square placed on the ground. As part of the Cupar Arts Festival 2016, Jenny Messenger and I chat about my work on the festival blog       Raised bog habitat plants used Calluna vulgaris - Heather Erica tetralix - Cross-leaved Heath Eriophorum angustifolium - Common Cottongrass / Bog cotton Sphagnum papillossum - Sphagnum moss Eriophorum vaginatum - Hare’s-tail Cottongrass / Bog cotton Sphagnum capillifolium - Sphagnum moss Sphagnum tenellum - Sphagnum moss Nardus stricta - Mat-grass Myrica gale - Bog-myrtle Narthecium ossifragum - Bog Asphodel Trichophorum cespitosum - Deergrass Polytrichum commune - Hair moss Molinia caerulea - Purple Moor-grass Juncus effusus - Soft Rush Racomitrium lanuginosum - Woolly Fringe-moss Sphagnum cuspidatum - Sphagnum moss Rhytidiadelphus loreus - Little Shaggy-moss Hypnum juntlandicum - Heath Plait-moss   [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]...

06 May, 2017

[vc_row 0="" css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text 0=""] Vassen Susar Exhibition - Finland at Korpoström and Kuusisto Art Manor, March to August 2016 Vassen Susar | Ruovikko suhisee |The Whispering Reeds     This exhibition arose out of a residency at the Saari residency where six artists, four Finnish and two Scottish, worked together and researched the impact and problems of common reed, Phragmites australis, in Finland. In Finland reed, Phragmites australis, has become a problem, an invasive species which is forming dense thickets around the islands as well as inland. We need to listen to the voice of the reed. It is telling us that things are out of balance. This installation is designed to experience common reed in a new way, encouraging you to ‘hear the reed's voice'. These delicate weavings, made using the leaves of the reed, are an expression of the inter twinning of life, of the bond between people and the reed. As part of the exhibition at Kuusisto Art Manor near Turku, I was in residence making work in response to the surroundings.  My workshop was in the old barn, which was situated in a wooded, mossy space.  Spending time on bike rides through this landscape informed and fed into the work that emerged.  Mosquitoes!     [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]...

25 October, 2016
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