Sùgan

Rope woven from straw or hay is something made and used by peoples throughout the world. It features, for example, in Shinto artifacts where it is used for ceremonial and ritual decoration, and even to make rope bridges. 

At the Museum in Kildonan on South Uist there's a display panel with the title Gnionih Mo Lamhan which I think we can translate as 'hand work', or 'hand craft'. It goes on to say:

"The people of South Uist used the natural materials available on the island to make many of the things they needed during their working lives. 

"Sùgan (hay rope) was made by twisting hay and rushes to make a rope. The rope would be use for securing hay stacks and thatching buildings.

"Rope was also made from heather... Heather was pulled, not cut and the turf that was attached to the end was cleaned....two strands of heather were twisted together to make a rope. Heather rope was used round the thatch of the house, round hay stacks and basically to anchor anything that needed to be secure. When the rope was no longer needed it was put into balls and then it was buried in a field drain to keep it fresh and pliable."

These three photographs are of rope used in this way on the remains of the old house where Angus was raised. The technique of weaving hay described above is exactly what Angus used in making many of the objects during his years at Craig Dunain, and in the short section of home movie used in Nick Higgins film, Hidden Gifts, Angus can be seen endlessly working the grass and hay into ropes such as these.  

The picture above is a coil I have of Angus's sùgan, woven during his last years in hospital - we keep it in a black bin-bag at the Boo, hoping it may provide a little good luck towards getting this show on the road . 

Weaver of Grass

Yesterday Helen sent off the application to Creative Scotland. If we're successful in the bid it will enable us to work with and alongside a large number of Scottish artists and organisations to create a performance about Angus McPhee - and a whole lot more besides. 

Taigh Chearsabhagh, Theatre Hebrides, the Gaelic Music Course at Lews Castle College, Kildonan Visitor Centre and Museum, all on the Outer Islands, will be directly involved. Joyce Laing and the Art Extraordinary Trust in Fife will also be part of the project, as will artists Joanne B.Kaar, Andy MacKinnon and Chris Spears - again, based on the Islands or Highlands. So with the exception of Horse + Bamboo Theatre a bid entirely based on work in Scotland. 

Now it's waiting to see what happens....there's also a bid been made to Scotland's Islands Festival. So time to remember where it all started. Joyce Laing's lovely little book, Weaver of Grass *, published by the Taigh Chearsabhagh Trust. 


* ISBN 0 9535814 1 1

A Celtic pantheon

The Gundestrup Cauldron. I photographed this at the Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen last summer. An awe-inspiring object that I think shows a Celtic pantheon. You can just glimpse Cernunnus, the horned god, to the right at the back, on the inside of the vessel. I want our story of Angus to hint, just hint, at the Celtic stories and culture that remained in the Uists and other Western Islands when they have all but disappeared from mainland of Europe.

Here, one last image from Horse + Bamboo's 1984 journey to the islands, courtesy of Dennis Thorpe of The Guardian. The second has now started in earnest - Helen has almost completed the first application for support for touring a production about Angus McPhee. It has to be submitted by Monday. The past few days we've been discussing the final details with partners such as Theatre Hebrides, Taigh Chearsabhagh and Lews Castle College on Benbecula.   

More memories...

The one and only surviving poster from our 1984 tour. I took the photograph at Callanish, Clachan Chalanais, on one of our many reconnaissance visits with Moira Hirst, the company's horse-handler. For this image Moira wore the mask and shawl that I carried in the car. In fact the tour never actually reached Lewis, finishing at Tarbert, on Harris just south of the long pull (for a horse) up to Lewis. 

This is us on Barra, with a semi-staged photograph for The Guardian, who flew up their Arts Reporter, Robin Thornber and the photographer, Dennis Thorpe, and published an almost full page (large, pre-Berliner format) photo-feature on our tour. 

Memories

As fundraising and planning for a tour of a show about Angus McPhee gets underway in the Horse + Bamboo office I dug out the old photo-files of the 1984 tour of the Outer Hebrides. Then, we performed inside a marquee, although the first scene of the show took place outside of the tent before the audience were invited to enter. That outdoor show could also be used as a stand-alone performance, and the top photograph above is that show taken, I think, at Leverburgh Festival on Harris. 

The other two photographs are of the company travelling. If anyone recognises where we were then please let me know. The bottom photograph is on a causeway (look carefully and you can see the horse-drawn wagons in the distance), probably around Creagorry, on Benbecula, and not so far from Iochdar, where Angus was born. The middle photograph may be on Barra, or possibly Harris? 

Helen has created a Mastersheet - a plan of how we intend to raise the money to undertake this project and tour. A raft of different sources will be approached to support the work, and the first letters and applications are beginning to be worked on as I write. One interesting thing is the discovery that 2011-12 will be the year of a festival focused on the islands, -a year of events and activities that will showcase Scotland’s islands’ cultures and creativity, and called, not surprisingly 'Scotland's Islands'.

The festival will aim 'to raise the profile of the islands, attract new visitors, bolster community and economic development and strengthen links between the islands and mainland cultural organisations', and although co-incidental with our project, it may well be a perfect match.

Artists...

Despite working flat-out on Red Riding Hood (a new and small-scale show for Christmas) there's plenty happening here with Angus. Joanne B Kaar finally returned my email - the original had been chewed and rejected by her spam-eater - and we made contact. This has really delighted me as Joanne's work looks both fabulous and perfect for a show about Angus McPhee.....

Above we see Joanne after a recent fishing expedition with her husband, dad - and Chip. Joanne has also put me in contact with Tim Johnson, who has worked on Uist, and is a multi-skilled maker, working in photography, basket-maker, sculptor and painter. I also spoke with Chris Spears on Berneray yesterday, outlining our current plans and discussing the possibility of hiring a hall, perhaps even the community hall, on Berneray or North Uist in 2011 to use as a base for making parts of the production. 

In the course of our conversation Chris gave me a link to a number of artists associated with the island, including Chris Drury, whose show Land, Water and Language is currently at Taigh Chearsabhagh in Lochmaddy (though closing shortly). So far as I can see it looks stunning. All of this confirms to me just how much really good creative work is happening in the Highlands and Islands.

Above - guisers on Uist (love this photograph); and finally - a link to a short section from 'Hidden Gifts: The Mystery of Angus McPhee' the excellent 25-minute film made by Nick Higgins for Landsdowne Productions in 2004.

A visit to Craig Dunain

One of the places that Esther and Helen visited on their recent trip was Craig Dunain, the psychiatric hospital outside of Inverness where Angus McPhee lived from 1946 until 1996. Craig Dunain Hospital was the only hospital for psychiatric illness in the Highlands, and formerly the Highland District Lunatic Asylum - Scotland's third oldest district asylum.

In 2007 it was mostly destroyed by fire and is now being transformed into luxury flats, as you can see from the photographs that Helen took there. The places where Angus worked, where he carefully placed all the garments he made from grass and sheep's wool beneath the protective bushes of rhododendron or holly, still remain. But they sit unloved amidst the security fencing and diggers and earth movers that are slowly eating away at the gardens that provided a studio and workshop for Angus for half a century (below).

The meetings in Inverness were really positive. Most were meetings with potential partners, and there is a keenness to tell this story and take it around the Islands and Highlands. On our part the need to work with Scottish partners on this project is apparent, and I'll be spending my time over the next few weeks consulting with friends and colleagues, planning ways of doing this and time-tabling our next visits.