Day 2
Installed in Garden B: Friday 13th August 2021. Approx. 3pm
Thursday 26th August 2021. Approx.11am
Changes noted: The panel presumably with the weight of more water absorbed into the cloth, had sagged further into the water. Garden B hosts noted that the water in the pond had increased due to rain. The calico fabric at the bottom of the panel has become stained with pond water. After photographing the work I decided to tighten the washing line and thus hoist up the panel again leaving, as before, a small section of the panel draped into the water. I expect it will gradually sink again. The fabric has also accrued some pond debris.
Garden B hosts also noted that fraying fabric threads had caught around the lilies located behind the textile panel. They had made the decision to cut the threads. Some thread remained around the lilies.
Thursday 9th September 2021. Approx. 4.45pm
Changes noted: Mould appearing. Diagonal streaks of mould extend from the pegs at the top of the panel. Presumably this is caused by rain running down the panel which is purposely hung at an angle in order that the cloth is partially submerged into the pond water below. Mould and dirt are appearing on other parts of the panel too as can be seen from the photos below. I am now becoming intrigued as to whether the mould on different part of the cloth, on the different fabrics is the same? What effect are the surrounding environments having, the different plants mixed, the varied weather conditions etc having on the fabric. I have been inspired to think about this more since seeing an exhibition of the work of Derek Christie – ‘Seen and Unseen’ – photographs of microscopic life. There are so may life forms, unseen to the naked eye, that are part of and effect our eco-system. I want to know more.
Friday 24th September 2021. Approx. 4.45pm
Photograph sent by host. Day 2 Caught up again.
Thursday 30th September 2021. Approx. 6pm
Changes noted: It was a blustery day. The fabric got caught up in the rose branch. I documented it but later found it had got entangled again. There were much stronger diagonal marks made by the rain on the top left-hand side of the panel. Interestingly the strong watermarks seen in the above photos had faded, presumably because the bottom of the panel had been out of the water for some time. I was able to take some photos by torchlight after it got dark. It had re-tangled with the rose branch but in a slightly different way.
Saturday 23rd October 2021. Approx. 12.20-13.30pm
Changes noted: The pattern of marks caused by the rain on the upper part of the panel has grown and become more apparent. The fabric had got tightly twisted around the line on the top right-hand side of the panel. As I photographed, the wind was constantly changing the position of the panel – blowing it back into the ‘Northern Blue Flag Iris’ that are planted behind it. I was aware of subtle reflections in the water of the panel – particularly the word water, read backwards in the pond. The bottom left-hand corner of the panel has frayed in a particularly feather-like way and was beautifully drifting with the ebb and flow of the cloth as move it moved in the wind. The garden around the pond and cloth has been changing over the last few weeks too. While the red flowering Sulfur Cosmos has continued to bloom the Shrubby Crownvetch, a particularly beautiful a spring-like looking yellow on an Autumn day, has come into flower. Other plants immediately surrounding the panel and pond include Stalked Bulbine, African Lily, Sweet Flag and of course in the pond American White Water Lilies.
Day 2: February 22-July 22
Reinstalled in Garden B: Friday 11th Febraury 2022. Approx. 11.00am
Several attempts had been made to rehang this panel throughout January but sadly Covid had gradually swept through the host household preventing the reinstallation until nearly mid-February, The Day 2 panel was, like the Day 1 panel, also reinstalled on a windy day back over its garden pond. The lush greenery of the previous summer and autumn photographs, seen in the first half of this project, was largely gone leaving only the brown reeds, with the exception of the beautiful flowering Shrubby Crownvetch to the left-handside of the pond and panel. The wonderfully clear, crisp winters day’ however afforded wonderful reflections as can be seen below.
24th February 2022
A message and photograph from the host: ‘Day 2 [has been] unfurled but might benefit from being sewn onto the washing line… see tangled mass! The hosts did keep readjusting and re pegging until I was able to visit again.
Friday 4th March 2022. Approx. 12.00pm
Changes noted: The hosts had, as I said above, continually rehung the panel and so it was hanging nicely when I visited on 4th March. I did however take my needle and thread and duly sewed the panel to its washing line. There have been no complaints since. Again, the clear day provided wonderful reflections both of the panel and its surroundings. Changes were minimal, but a twig, about a foot long, had attached itself to the bottom of the panel – I chose to leave it. The photo above, and more below, do show the beautiful yellow of the Shrubby Crownvetch that flowers through winter and spring, providing colour to the more barren winter garden. It’s worth looking back to the first photo in August – http://www.soulmarks.co.uk/7-days/documenting-7-days-day-2/– to notice the contrast of the abundance of lush green foliage surrounding the pond at the height of the summer – it’s almost a shock to see!
Friday 11th March 2022
A photo sent by host with the title ‘Mixed Media.‘ I love that the panel becomes part of the domestic scene, its washing line practically and humorously utilised. The swimwear, fresh from wild swimming, connects to the sea (the nearby Forth Estuary) and thus truly makes the washing line a mixed media piece bringing together art- textile, the quotidian, the urban and the wider natural world.
Friday 18th March 2022
A photo sent by host,who wanted me to ‘note the frogspawn.’ More signs of nature’s life-cycle not just in the plant life but in the amphibian life of the pond.
Wednesday 18th May 2022 Approx. 3.30pm
Changes noted: It has been over two months since I was able to visit the panel. There was no mention or sign of frogs from the frogspawn mentioned in the previous post image but the goldfish were very much in evidence, especially when the host sprinkled some fish food in the pond near the textile hanging! Some of the fish really did sparkle like gold as the afternoon sun hit the top of them in the water. Apparently, they have been drawn to the panel more recently – perhaps for shade -and even found, at times, to be nibbling it!
The hosts told me the fabric had, on the right-hand side, broken loose from the stitching in the high winds. The panel had been sewn to the to the washing line on my last visit to prevent this. They had apparently repegged it several times with additional pegs – hence the appearance of an orange plastic peg amongst the wooden ones that I had supplied.
Today the panel was also blowing back and forth sometimes just sitting on the reeds behind it, out of the water, and at others being blown back into it. As the sun came out beautiful crisp shadows of the reeds and other plants were cast on to the calico cloth. As with the other panels the area surrounding the hanging had become much more verdant since I had last visited. Behind the panel a beautiful pink Japanese Jasmine plant was in flower and while I was photographing it, it was visited by a bee looking for pollen.
The host suggested at one point that the bottom of the panel had appeared to have become a green colour but this then seemed to have disappeared, perhaps cleaned or washed itself away again? There is a slight change to the colour at the bottom of the panel, this from being in the water, but I suspect as I take it out and it dries out it will disappear or leave only a very pale stain. I will have to wait and see.
Wednesday 15th June 2022 Approx. 6.50pm
Changes noted: There were perhaps more subtle changes this time. The host did say that they had sorted it out about 10 days before ‘as it was all a bit mangled.’ This would explain the extra plastic pegs- blue and white – in addition to the orange one added last time. It is a concern for the host that it looks good.
The panel was perhaps hanging deeper in the pond and lovely tonal layers of colour had been created where the water had been absorbed into the cloth, these I suspect will disappear as it dries out. Beautiful purple irises were blooming at the right-hand side of the panel and there were a lush mix of plants, including the Japanese Jasmine mentioned previously, behind it. The fish, sadly this time, were nowhere to be seen. Dappled evening light appeared on the top of the panels as I photographed and what I thought was at first a dried-out worm was hanging at the back of the panel. The dried-out worm turned out to be a beautifully twisted wooden root. This was entangled around some stray fraying threads.
I took the panel away leaving the view of the Irises and other plants now clear.
