Day 7

Installed in Garden Z : Saturday 1st August 2021. Approx. 9.30am

This panel, ironically the final panel was finished first because of its simplicity, and I decided to take it with me to Iona for the first week of August where I was co-leading a Worship workshop with Wild Goose Resource Group at Iona Abbey and the Iona Community’s MacLeod centre. It hung in the MacLeod centre’s front garden.

The panel is twice as long as the other panels (1Mx2M) in order for the whole installation of panels to work in the University Memorial Chapel when exhibited.

It is the least worked panel being plain white cotton edged with gold leaf.

Changes noted: The panel was quite exposed and very open to the wind but was firmly pegged to its washing line. The following photos capture the panel over a week of mixed weather. I chose not to varnish the gold as a small sample panel seemed to work well without it. However, the gold did disappear somewhat leaving a fainter tarnished edge on three sides. The pegged top line interestingly kept its sheen. As a result, I varnished the gold on the remaining panels which so far seems to have worked.

The white cloth does enable beautiful shadows.

Installed in Garden G: Tuesday 10th August 2021. Approx. 3.30pm

The panel will remain in garden G for the remainder of the project. I had a dilemma as to whether to replace the gold lost around the three edges. While I did add new gold in some selected places around the edges, I decided primarily to leave as it was.

Wednesday 18th August 2021. Approx. 4pm

Changes noted: As can be seen from the image above the cloth has bunched up and wrapped itself around the washing line. After documenting this I chose to repeg it in its rectangular format again.

Wednesday 27th August 2021. Approx. 1.40pm

Changes noted: The cloth had once again wrapped itself around the washing line. This time it created a beautiful, winged form. Again, after documenting this I chose to repeg it in its rectangular format. The plain white of the cloth delightfully captured the striking shadows from the surrounding foliage.

Tuesday 8th September 2021. Approx. 7.30pm

Changes noted: On visiting Day 7 yesterday I discovered it had been taken down and re-hung, presumably because someone had needed the washing line. Interestingly it was re-hung upside down (if there is such a thing for this piece) so that the strong golden edge that had been at the top was now at the bottom. It had also been pegged with more of an overhang. I decided to document it and leave it as it was. Other than this I observed only some slight fraying and one or two minor marks on the cloth.

Tuesday 18th September 2021. Approx. 5pm

Changes noted: A very Autumnal feel in the garden, a floor coloured of scattered leaves over the lawn. Only some very subtle changes; slight hints of mould or dirt and some minor marks. I did find myself walking away disappointed that almost nothing had happened and then laughter at the irony of that thought – this of course is Day 7, the day of rest!

Sunday 26th September 2021. Approx. 4.30pm – 5.45pm

Changes noted: While some very subtle streaks of dirt, presumably caused by the rain, have appeared the main change on was that it had become wrapped around the line in the wind. After photographing it, I straighten it out only to find it later that afternoon twisted around the line again. I straighted it out once again and this time repegged it.

Wednesday 20th October 2021. Approx. 2.30pm

Changes noted: As you can see the fabric was twisted and wound around the washing line more than it had been previously. I documented this and then unwrapped it from its twisted state. There are some rectangular marks where the dirty, damp pegs seemed to have pressed on to the fabric suggesting that it had been in its twisted state for quite some time. I also spotted two small insects, one perhaps a Harlequin ladybird? Though not a bright day one particular section of the gold leaf at the top of the panel was shining brightly. It was also a very blustery day so that the panel was constantly blowing in the wind, at times hitting the greenery showing the white cotton fabric to be almost translucent at times. The wind blew so much that the panel wrapped itself around the washing line again, catching the branches of a nearby bush. I untangled it for the final time and took it down.

Some of the plants and trees in the garden immediately around this work were: Evergreen Rose, Wild Cherry, Wintercreeper, Laurustinus, Himalayan Honeysuckle, European Mountain Ash, Vine Maple, Red Elderberry, Petty Spurge, Raspberry, Jerusalem Artichoke, Carob Tree and Fuchsia.

DAY 7: Jan – June 2022

Reinstalled in Garden G: Monday 10th January 2022. Approx. 3.40pm

Having had to tear the cloth in two for the Cop 26 exhibition I had to decide whether to sew the panel back up again or leave it, as can be clearly seen in this image I chose to leave it. The tearing for COP 26 had always been the plan as there was a door in the centre of the back wall where Day 7 was to be hung, it was made twice as long as the other panels in order to do this and so the installation would be balanced -see the exhibition images.

The garden looks hugely different from the October photos, gone are the green plants beneath and behind the panel, winter is here and the wind is blowing hard.

Tuesday 1st February 2022. Approx. 1.00pm

Changes noticed: Very little change to the panels themselves. There was more debris in the garden itself suggesting activity. It was a beautiful sunlight winter day, soft, shadowy shapes projected onto the cloths as once again wild winds tossed the panels around, throwing them into exciting shapes. Some hints of green were breaking through the barren winter soil including snowdrops.

Friday 18th February 2022. Approx. 1.00pm

Changes noticed: This visit was on a very wet day and the wind was once again blowing fiercely. One of the panels had got a little twisted around the washing line, the other caught up on one of the branches by a thread. I documented the tangles and then released the panels and continued to photograph them. There was very little change to the panels themselves apart from a slight mark. The scrunched-up panel when unfolded did reveal interesting patterns caused by the rain but these would disappear as the cloth dried. It’s becoming a joke that nothing happens on the day of rest!

Monday 14th March 2022. Approx. 1.05pm

Changes noticed. The panels have once again wrapped themselves around the washing line in the winds. The chair and the wheelbarrow are on their sides too but this may suggest more about human activity in the garden than the weather? To the bottom right of the above photo hints of spring with daffodils, as yet to unfold from their closed buds. The edges of the cloth, hinted at in the previous visit, are now fraying more, their threads are tangled around the pegs. There is a small hole in the cloth – it looks like something has pierced it – I could repair this but have decided for now to leave it. There are also some subtle, small dirty marks. As usual I unfurled the cloth, the left-hand panel was full of creases these I suspect will disappear as it hangs down freely again. The March light creates soft shadows on both panels.

Friday 22nd April 2022. Approx. 1.15pm

Changes noticed. What a contrast from my last visit over a month ago, blue skies and a garden greening. Again, there are signs of fraying and although the left-hand panel is a little wrapped around the line, it is more that the right-hand one has bunched up, the pegs seemingly having moved along the line in the wind – or have been moved by human hands? Unfurled and straightened out the shadows are no longer the soft, subtle shadows seen in recent visits but now in the bright, spring sunlight are sharp, black and white patterns that mimic the surrounding foliage, The white panels act like a cinema screen its projected images constantly changing and moving, as the cloths move in the wind.

Saturday 21st May 2022. Approx. 6.40pm

Changes noticed: More interesting objects in the garden suggesting activity. The panel is twisted again, this time the right-hand panel. There are more marks, still fairly subtle mostly, but a definite change and the fraying has increased both at the bottomed and top of the panel. Most in evidence is the blooming around the hanging, in particular a rose bush and a fuchsia beginning to envelop the left-hand side of the panel. A small green fly was crawling up the panel as I photographed.

Saturday 21st May 2022. Approx. 6.40pm

Wednesday 15th June 2022. Approx. 6.00pm

Changes noticed: As I walked into the garden a fox ran away jumping onto the wall to the left of the panel and after a while of it possibly watching me, it disappeared. I was much more aware of other creatures in the garden too this time, the birds were singing and lots of bees where hovering around the fuchsias and other plants collecting their nectar. One big change was the abundance of yellow roses and a tree dripping with flowing fuchsia, both of these were just beginning to appear on my previous visit. The roses in fact were past their best and I was sorry not to have caught them earlier.

More garden furniture was laying around. On the back of the panel some subtler dirty marks had appeared one looked like fingers had been dragged down it and the other a possible shoeprint – intriguing!

The panel was only a little twisted this time as the winds over the last month where not as fierce as they had been in the previous months. More fraying had occurred at the top of the panels and they took some twisting off as I took the cloth down from the washing line. Some of the threads remained on the line, lost to the panel forever. The garden generally was a lot lusher with Fullmoon maple growing and Multiflora rose blooming to the right of the panel, the latter also attracting the bees.