Day 1
Installed in Garden A: Monday 9th August 2021. Approx. 5.30pm
Sunday 22nd August 2021. Approx. 6pm
Changes noted: The central panel has puckered in the rain, cracks have appeared in the emulsioned brush strokes and the bottom edges and corners have begun to fray.
Monday 6th September 2021. Approx. 6.30pm
Changes noted: The fraying threads from the bottom of the panel had caught round the ivy behind it. The owner of garden A chose to leave this. After documenting it I chose to untangle the threads and allow the panel to fly free again. An ivy leaf broke away as I untangled it and I left it in the dangling thread.
Some small areas of the panel have started to become subtly dirty and a few insects were found to be crawling over the cloth but as far as I could see not leaving any marks.
Flying free, though I expect it to get entangled again very soon.
Sunday 19th September 2021. Approx. 4pm- 6pm
Changes noted: In the two hours I spent in the garden it was fascinating to watch the light changing due to the cloud movement. As the sun intermittently broke through the clouds the panel would change dramatically suddenly being filled with the dappled light. As the panel and the clouds moved so the light and shapes danced around the cloth. Alongside this the panel is getting dirtier, mould and subtle rain streaks gradually appearing on its surface. As the sun came out the flies were attracted to the fabric, especially the central gold area. The long thread hanging left hanging from the bottom edge on my last visit I think had got shorter, less tangled, this and a very regularly fringed edge suggest the thread has been pulled – by host, wind or animal?
Changes noted:As the sun came out the flies were attracted to the fabric, especially the central gold area. The long thread hanging left hanging from the bottom edge on my last visit I think had got shorter, less tangled, this and a very regularly fringed edge suggest the thread has been pulled – by host, wind or animal?
Monday 27th September 2021. Approx. 8.20pm
Visiting the Day 1 hosts, they told me that the panel had been battered about by the days wind and rain. It was dark by this time, so I ventured out with a touch and took the following photos. The panel had attached itself to the bushes behind, I decided to leave it like that.
Sunday 17th October 2021. Approx. 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Changes noted: On this very wet Autumn day the most obviously thing to notice was that the fabric, due the wind, had wrapped itself round the washing line. My host told me it had been like that since the day before. Some twigs had caught around the bottom hanging threads of the panel and had hooked themselves over the line causing the rest of the fabric to wrap around. After documenting this I chose to unwrap and untangle the panel. I had to snap some of the threads to do that.
Changes noted (cont.): on unwrapping the fabric I like that the twigs had become an integral part of the work and should, I hope, be present as part of the piece in the final exhibition. The fabric was very wet. The stitched seed or vulva-like centre was very puckered. In general, the panel, in line with the other panels, has become gradually dirtier and mouldier as the weeks have passed. Beautiful jewel like rain drops hung from the fringing (frayed cloth) and single stranded threads at the bottom of the fabric.
I have over the weeks that the panels have been hanging become more interested in the plants that surround the panels. I wonder what effect, if any they have had on the panels. Having now downloaded an app I could identify some of these: English Ivy, Seaside Sandplant, Winter Jasmine, Mountain Clematis, Possumhaw Viburnum (complete with cobweb), Annual Honesty, Evergreen Huckleberry, Oregon Grape, Pacific Poison Oak and Silver Birch.
One of the ends of the washing line on which the panel was hung was tied to a Silver Birch tree. When I went to take down the panel and retrieve my rope I discovered that a strand of ivy had grown over it pinning it to the tree. Some gentle pulling served to release the trapped rope and the panel final came down.
DAY 1: Jan – June 2022
Reinstalled in Garden A: Thursday 13th January 2022. Approx. 11.00am
The Day 1 panel was reinstalled on a windy but bright January day, the creases showing clearly as a result from it being packed in a bag since late November. A small twig, attached by the threads at the bottom of the panel since before the exhibition is still there. The cloth a little dirtier and its edges much frayed since it was first hung out in August 2021. I wonder what the next few months will do to it? How will it survive the winter winds and weather? Behind the panel the Winter Jasmine is flowering.
Sunday 13th March 2022. Approx. 3.30pm
Changes noted: The most obvious thing to note when I arrived was that it was all twisted and attached to itself and to the foliage behind the panel by its frayed threads. The host told me they had unattached it several times but that this had continued to happen. It had obviously been blown over several times as can be seen by the twisted cloth where the pegs are, to leave it or not to leave it? I decided to photograph it and then free it but as I left the wind was getting up again and I was sure it wouldn’t take long before the threads re-entangled around one another and to the small branches of the surrounding greenery. The Winter Jasmine was no longer in flower.
Monday 28th March 2022. Approx. 7.25pm
Changes noted: Not as twisted as last time I visited. I presume the hosts had untwisted it several times so that upon my arrival it was again hanging straight. There were continuing signs of wear and tear especially around the fraying edges. Loose threads are wrapped around branches around the panel, the twig at the bottom remains wrapped in white yarn as does a similar cross of two tangled twigs at the side. Pear blossom is blooming behind the panel and the hedge itself is growing so as to push the panel forwards.
Monday 25th April 2022. Approx. 7.00pm
Changes noted: The most obvious change was the evening light on the beautiful Cherry Blossom Tree in the host’s garden. The verdant greenery of the hedge and the surrounding panel was a contrast to the bare winter branches, now fully covered, seen on my last visit.
The purple flower of the Annual Honesty is growing to the right of the panel and there are still hints of Winter Jasmine that I thought had finished on my last visit. The ivy is bursting forth all over but particularly in places now stopping the panel from hanging straight down. While I was photographing the wind blew lightly but enough to catch the panel on some foliage at the left-hand side where it caught and changed the form of the panel yet again. I decided to leave it. Few visible changes to the actual panel are noticeable.
Monday 16th May 2022. Approx. 8.20pm
Changes noted: The visit was on a very rainy evening, the panel was very wet and twisted with clear tooth-like frayed edges. I noticed a spider crawling up the fabric as I unfolded it, also a falling leaf had stuck to the wet cloth, this, I expect will fall off as the panel dries out. The photos show, in certain places, the panel is quite dirty although overall it is staying remarkable white. The final image shows the beautiful white blossom of the Mexican Orange.
Monday 23rd May 2022. Approx. 8.30pm
Changes noted: Changes noted: The fraying threads on the panel were once again caught on the foliage behind causing it to hang in rather an odd shape. On the right-hand side this was merely to the greenery behind, but on the left-hand it was to the stem of a beautiful, yellow rose completely hidden by the panel. A new small black mark – a dot – had appeared at the centre of the panel and small bits of twig, some old, some new, hung from various threads at different parts of the panel. Honesty was in bloom to the right of the panel; it’s purple flowers can be seen in the second image below. The hosts needed to trim the hedge and this was possibly my last chance to visit before the Solas Festival exhibition and therefore I made the decision to not just untangle it but take it away.
