An Imaginary Line to There
From Here
An Imaginary LIne from Here to There ‘An imaginary line from here to there’ is a project within ‘First in a lifetime,’a Creative Scotland initiative offering people the opportunity to participate in arts activity for the first time in their lives. Funding from Creative Scotland has given ‘Art in hospital’ the opportunity to develop an ambitious series of 3 intensive residencies in care homes across the east end of Glasgow, during 2013, each culminating in a public exhibition. ‘An imaginary line from here to there’ was conceived in September 2012 over tea and cake in the art room at Greenfield Park . Kay MacLean and Alan Lyons, lead Artists for the Greenfield Park project, were present, several residents interested in taking part in the project and a few others of us. During the conversation, all kinds of lines began to be pegged out; personal stories of individual reflections of washing lines, directions for geographical lines from the care home to residents’ homes, and lines that for some residents joined up notable East End landmarks. Life lines, wide and narrow marks, lines of graded colours and many more ‘imaginary lines’ became a central theme of the ensuing project. Every line told its own story, from those very tentative first marks. But as you look around this exhibition, there is no sentimental or narrative visual interpretation of a theme. This is not an exhibition created by ‘older people.’ ‘Perhaps the age of the artists is relevant only in that it has given them the freedom to create work that is wholly intuitive. Lines have been constructed with awareness, rather than calculation. Sadie Stirling has created a beautiful series of intricate crochet ‘lines’ in response to reflections she had shared with us about ‘the steamie. ’ Her final installation reflects the earlier drawings she had made in my notebook detailing the linear patterns of the construction of the washing lines she remembered. Although her stimulus has been personal memory, the crochet 2 colour crossing lines along the walls form a minimal almost architectural installation. The intimacy of her crochet, coming from her career as a professional seamstress, is a moving description of the stories she had shared with us, such as the following:
‘all the gossip was had at the steamie, especially about those who couldn’t get their washing as white as the others..then they were talked about!’ ‘I would take the washing in the pram to the steamie, then go on to collect the coal that my father would throw over the wall into the pram when he knew I was coming.’ The pram always had 2 uses, other than the baby, the washing and the coal.’ Ina Glen has produced a delicate series of pastel flowers in jugs. Her lines were sometimes hesitant, at times more confident. When fatigue took over, her lines became fragile and quieter in colour and marks. When I complimented her on the delicacy of her work, she shook her head and told me she should have started years ago but that she was getting happier with her drawing and that she had ‘almost got the jug right this time.’ She invited me to lean closer to the drawing to see if I could smell the flowers, then smiled and closed her own eyes for a few moments before she shared the thought that ‘the smell of flowers is so fresh it makes you think about everything that is right in life. ‘ ‘ Helen Scott’s wonderful ‘take over’ of the walls in the new gallery space at Greenfield Park is an extraordinary expression of the joy Helen found in painting for the first time in her 89th year. When the Artists suggested tea breaks or short rests, she declined almost apologetically, telling them she had to get back to her painting, she had 88 years to catch up on. Helen’s lines were circular, vertical, horizontal . She stepped back and paused only to reflect on her latest line. When I told her she should be the first Artist in Residence at the new Velodrome for the Commonwealth Games, she rested her brush a moment and then nodded, perhaps in agreement before she added ‘only if they’ve a long wall to paint.’’ The film created by Alan Lyons follows Helen as she is given the canvas of the blank wall, the camera is left running some of the time, then re-positioned to observe the paintings develop, a gentle and sensitive observation of her process. Paul Klee’s well known quote ‘A line is a dot that went for a walk’ feels especially relevant to Helen Scott’s painting as I go from line to line, wall to wall.
There is such sensitivity and energy to her work that I feel her 89 years are important to note here only in that she puts into an hour’s painting what other artists of lesser years may take a year to complete. I had the sense watching her at work that you would have to remove Helen Scott surgically from her painting, if you wanted to separate them. It seemed as though I saw imaginary lines in all the residents’ work Matthew Weir’s deep landscapes, Alex Stride’s continuous thickening lines, Ann McDines aquarelle drawings persistently vibrant against their black background. Carl Cordonnier, who will work with me to respond photographically to ‘An Imaginery Line’, listened to Jo Carstairs ‘ line of explanation of her personal line through the East End of Glasgow. She gave him a photographic map to create, starting with very specific markers along a bus route she travelled regularly ‘ go past the chapel on the right and the church on the left. That left turn is opposite ‘the starfish and cabbage,’ if you’ve passed the carpet factory you’ve gone too far. Go past the small row of shops, the row with the sunbed parlour on it and then you get off the bus.’ I have thought a lot about lines since being asked to document this project. I am left with the feeling that this exhibition has been inspired more by line and colour and the relationships between them than by factual subject matter. As always, with the wonderful projects facilitated by Artists from Art in Hospital, in this case, Kay MacLean and Alan Lyons, I am convinced that only through working with Professional Artists who offer such deeply careful guidance, people’s creativity and individuality are allowed to be fully expressed. From a gentle analysis of a brush stroke, to a mixing of a deeper colour shade, from reassurance that the painting needs no more work to shared dialogue about creative process, there is simply a respect, from one artist to another. Penny Rae January 29th 2013