An old friend

Some of the Horse + Bamboo creative team on North Uist

Since we heard the very positive news from Creative Scotland our focus has continued to be on getting our two Christmas productions on stage. However, that done, I sat down with Alison yesterday and we began the process of time-tabling our New Year - in particular how we will use the period from January to April to develop the Angus production, starting with a re-examination of the script immediately we're back at work.

In the meantime I noticed that this blog has passed 10,000 hits, and I continue to receive news from our partners in Scotland, telling of the continued interest in Angus and his work. It was particularly good to hear from Dr. Stephanie Bunn. Steph is Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at St. Andrews University, and author of the excellent British Museum book on 'Nomadic Felts', based on her researches among pastoral nomads in Kyygyzstan. In another life Steph worked with Horse + Bamboo, and stumbled across us again when talking to Joyce Laing at the Art Extraordinary Gallery. Seems Steph has an interest in Angus too, which I suppose isn't entirely surprising given her interest in felt-making - which I feel is a kind of second cousin, removed, of grass weaving. 

From Creative Scotland

"We write to inform you that the above-mentioned application was successful and your award will be confirmed once the following conditions have been received:

•     A revised budget. Clearly showing the level of rehearsal costs and the proposed size (personnel, etc) of the touring company.
•          Confirmation of all delivery partners, especially within the Gaelic Diaspora. (Note MG Alba not BBC Alba)

"A reassessment of CS Investment Level will be commensurate on the above conditions being met."

This refers, of course, to our application for support towards touring our show about Angus MacPhee. The email arrived in Helen's inbox just as she was leaving the office last night, and caused her to break our unofficial rule of not disturbing rehearsal. 

Many, many thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far. 

Meanwhile in Caithness

Once again, in the absence of any new work on our production Angus at the Boo (Horse + Bamboo's workshop in Rossendale) - as we're in the thick of producing two Christmas shows - we turn to Caithness and Joanne B Kaar to find that she has now completed the replica grass trousers. That's Joanne above, with the trousers mysteriously hovering directly in front of her. 

To compare them with the original, here they both are:

The view from Shetland

From the Shetland Times, Spaekalation (link to the full article here):

"In much the same way as Shetlanders cared for their boats, the Uist people nurtured and nursed their homes. Mingling love and economic necessity, they created bridles and harnesses for their horses, long strands to rein in and control the most unruly steed from the grass found upon the machair.

"In his years of exile in Inverness, Angus MacPhee, however, did much more than this. Incorporating beech leaves and other material from the trees around the asylum, his artful fingers sculpted a bizarre wardrobe from grass. A swallow-tailed coat. A pair of shoes. An astonishing haberdashery of hats, from Tyrolean to Stetsons. Most of the time, however, he hid these creations away. A private artist, it was the fierce and secret obsession of a man miles away from the touch and texture of his beloved marram grass."

From a review of:
The Silent Weaver: The Extraordinary Life Of Angus MacPhee, by Roger Hutchinson, is published by Birlinn, £9.99.
by D.S.Murray

Cracking the Grass Code

Joanne Kaar explains how she succeeded in unravelling the mystery of Angus MacPhee's garments.....

"My name is Joanne Kaar. I live in Dunnet village, on Dunnet Head in Caithness. With  views  to the village of Brough, where I grew up. The Pentland Firth and the Orkney Island of Hoy are in the distance.

Earlier this year I visited Joyce Laing  in Pittenweem, Fife, to take a closer look at the grass garments made my Angus MacPhee.  I had seen his incredible work while it as on display in Stornoway many years ago.   Angus was a crofter. He lived in South Uist, but spent almost 50 years in Craig Dunain psychiatric hospital in Inverness........."

To read more go to the NORTHINGS website

As we continue to wait for news of our funding application to Creative Scotland, there's still - of course - plenty to do. Alison's new show 'The Twittering Machine' goes into rehearsal tomorrow and I've a set to complete for that, plus 'Red Riding Hood' continues to tour until it arrives at the Royal Exchange studio in Manchester, as their Christmas Show. 

As for Angus, whenever I come up for air from working on the above, new ideas emerge. The video and film sections in particular keep being reshaped in my mind, probably because animated videos are another thing I'm working on at Horse + Bamboo at the moment. Last week I woke up in the middle of the night and imagined 52 Balgarva, the tigh dubh where Angus spent his boyhood, as a small but detailed model that a camera could explore with live feed whilst projecting the results onto the stage; and that the hospital at Craig Dunain likewise could be modelled and used in the same way. I like this idea of combining the action of live use of the camera, preferring it in many ways to using pre-shot film. 

Today I went to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester to see Dark Matters, a show by 10 artists who explore shadow, darkness and illusion - many using video and live-feed projection. Daniel Rozin's pieces I found especially impressive. One 'Snow Mirror' (above) simply played back the viewers likenesses onto a silk screen, but the quality of the image - spectral, snow-like, created a sense of something removed from the present,  remembered rather than actual, even though it worked much as a mirror does. This was exactly the quality I had imagined using for 'Angus' in those scenes where Angus MacPhee returns to his home after 50 years and the memories flood back; totally present for him (and the audience) - but at the same time existing only as memories. 

A new resting place...

This, the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre is where most of what remains of Angus MacPhees work will end up. Joanne B Kaar sent me this link; the Centre is where the vast collection of Scottish Museums is held when it's not on display. 

Joyce Laing is intending to close her wonderful Art Extraordinary Gallery in Pittenweem for good this winter, and then the collection will move to the GMRC where it can be properly looked after and the fragile work restored where necessary. I know it's her hope that the pieces will still be able to be seen, forming touring exhibitions of the work.