ANGUS MCPHEE - Weaver of Grass


ANGUS MCPHEE or MACPHEE was a crofter from Uist who spent almost 50 years in a Highland psychiatric hospital. During this time he chose not to speak - instead he wove a series of incredible costumes out of grass. These he hung on trees in the hospital grounds.

This blog follows the progress of HORSE + BAMBOO THEATRE as they develop and tour a show about Angus....

Thursday 17 March 2011

The Silent Weaver



Above, the first masks of Angus McPhee (the green is the underpainting), and the rough cardboard screens being used experimentally as a way of representing the garden at Craig Dunain Hospital where Angus created his woven art works.

There will be a series of masks representing Angus at different stages in his life. I've started with the mask representing the old Angus (it's the best documented period by far in terms of finding photographs as source material). The next will be a slightly younger Angus; you can glimpse that mask on the left of the lower photograph, still in the course of having its papier-mache layers added.

This week I've also heard from the novelist Roger Hutchinson, author of the acclaimed 'Calum's Road'*, who tells me that his new novel is provisionally titled 'The Silent Weaver, The Extraordinary Life and Work of Angus MacPhee' and it will be published by Birlinn later this year.


* For more information on Roger Hutchinson and Calum's Road click this link.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting - can imagine this story would also make a wonderful film

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  2. Very different than the string making going on in my studio ....not silent at all.......much swearing going on......! It takes time to get to grips with the fibres......they are still very much in controll of me not the other way round! Angus must have had very strong hands. The more I struggle, the more I admire his work.

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