+ for St Bride
The exhibition ‘+ for St Bride’ by Alexander and Susan Maris at Dunoon Burgh Hall, January and February 2023 © Cultural Documents
Artists Alexander and Susan Maris have produced a new suite of artworks and exhibition to evoke Argyll’s social history of protection, endurance and healing in this time of pandemic.
Our aim is that it creates a contemplative space for people to reflect upon the challenges of living in their community during recent years, and to learn/think about St Bride and how, in Dunoon, in the past, worshippers of St Bride took comfort in her ethos of ‘care for the community’.
“It took forty days to weave each devotional work whilst all around, the world was unweaving into the chaos of the pandemic. It became clear that the original proposal for the exhibition at Dunoon Burgh Hall would have to change – to focus, without distraction, on the therapeutic symbolism of this cruciform motif.” Alexander Maris
For more than twenty years, the artists have collaborated to make artworks that reflect the cultural significance imbued into Scotland’s places; following insights gathered from local knowledge and millennia-old symbols evident in landscape the artists set out from Schiehallion at the centre of Scotland towards the west, undertaking a journey of research through Argyll to produce an anthology of photographs, tapestries, texts, drawings and symbolic objects entitled ‘The Well at the World’s End’. The works in this exhibition are part of this anthology exhibited online and in galleries throughout and beyond Argyll..
The suite of biodynamic tapestry artworks on display are coloured with dye made from lichen gathered from around the well of St Bride in Dunoon and water collected from the sacred well of Schiehallion in the centre of Scotland.
The cruciform design of the tapestries offers a symbol of aid in a time of crisis, and, by bringing two Argyll protagonists into focus, invites reflection into Argyll and Bute’s cultural histories of healing and renewal:
St Bride is considered by many to be a christianisation of the Celtic goddess ‘Brigid’; she became founder and abbess of the first Irish monastery and leader of Christian spirituality, revered for millennia for leading communities to find hope during times of deep despair. She is celebrated as a woman of peace who championed gender equality, created harmony amongst conflict, and is respected today as a symbol of healing and renewal.
Each Crux (cross) in the artwork ’19 Cruces for St Brigid’ represents one of the nineteen priestesses who acted as guardians of St Brigid’s eternal flame.
The Cailleach is the ancient Celtic goddess and protector of west Scotland revered for her ability to control land, sea and weather systems and care for our environment. Schiehallion mountain is one sacred place associated with the Cailleach; Cruachan is another, as is the Corryvreckan.
Many people celebrate (St) Brigid as the Spring aspect of the Celtic/Pictish Goddess, becoming the Cailleach in her Winter aspect.
The process of deciding the formation of the cross-shape of the Crux devised by the artists is somewhat multilayered; the shape is a representation of the numbers Five, Seven and Nine which have symbolic properties in the cultural and environmental history of west Scotland including…
• the number of vowels in the Beth-Luis-Nion Calendar, an interpretation of early medieval Ogham alphabetical systems. In today’s common alphabet, we use five vowels, and with the addition of Ō and Y (in the Ogham alphabet, a doubled A and a doubled I respectively), we can also consider that there are 7 and 9 vowels.
• the nine stations of the ‘The Wheel of the Year’ of the Cailleach which are nominated using vowel-letters. The Gregorian/Christian calendar introduced in the 16th century modified the dates of the eight fire festivals of the Celtic/Pictish year, and re-named them as Christian feasts. An example of this would be St Brigid’s Day which today (as we use the Gregorian calendar) is celebrated on 1 February but which in pre-Christian/Gregorian years would have been celebrated as part of the feast of (old) Imbolc during the dark hours between 7 and 8 February.
Nine is also the number of hazel trees around the Celtic Well of Knowledge / Inspiration which, in Celtic culture, are celebrated for having the power to give wisdom, inspiration and knowledge.
Please see this link for the list of works and gallery layout.
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Background:
The commission which developed into The Well at the World’s End was framed by the Alexander and Susan Maris‘s work to date, the aims of Locating Lorne set by Deirdre MacKenna, a series of introductions she arranged with people who hold specialised knowledge of the area and a series of informal and public dialogues exploring cultural practices in the territory.
Please follow the links below to learn more about the process so far:
The Locating Lorne Research Studio – throughout 2017
Introductions in 2017: these were a number of semi-structured visits through the area which had the purpose of introducing people to Alexander Maris and Deirdre MacKenna and enabling them to explain their motivations, gather information and develop knowledge. These were significantly enabled by Ian and Anthea Cleaver, Brigadier Iain MacPhàrlain / John MacFarlane, Graeme Strachan at Glenburnie House, Iain Coates at Hazelbank Motors and Rab Black at Argyll Safaris.
Lorne Cultural Arena – talks – November and December 2017
The Journey to I – In May 2018, over a period of sixteen days, Alexander undertook a research action entitled The Journey to I and walked from Schiehallion to Iona, meeting people along the way, both by arrangement and by circumstance; these meetings initiated new conversations which activated the symbolic objects Alexander carried on the journey, and explored the origins of the Gaelic language, ideas of centre and periphery and evidence of routes of pilgrimage woven into the landscape by our forebears.
Artist’s Talk by Alexander Maris – The Rockfield Centre Oban – 28 June 2018
The Well at the World’s End: Exploring Lorne through Art-making Processes – Talk by Deirdre MacKenna at Kilmartin Museum – 13 December 2018
Artists’ talk by Alexander Maris introducing The Well at the World’s End at the Ross of Mull Historical Centre – 05 June 2019, followed the next morning by a
Walk led by Alexander Maris and The Ross of Mull Historical Centre to the west coast of the Ross of Mull – 06 June 2019
Exhibition at An Tobar Gallery, Comar Tobermory from Saturday 17 August to Friday 25 October – please see Comar for opening hours and access
Exhibition at Dunoon Burgh Hall – April 2020
Exhibition at The Rockfield Centre Oban – April 2020.
Facebook page – please ‘like’ our page in order to keep up with announcements.
The Well at the World’s End is commissioned by Cultural Documents as part of their Locating Lorne programme; the exhibition from August to October 2019 is produced in partnership with the An Tobar Gallery at Comar, Mull with funding from Creative Scotland.
Connected Images
