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Alec Finlay: a better tale to tell

http://alecfinlayblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-better-tale-to-tell.html

160; ALEC FINLAY. A better tale to tell. A poem is ‘a form to hold the language of another’ (Brian Teare). In this new work the poem itself contains nothing but the language of others. A better tale to tale. Is composed entirely from submissions to the Smith Commission. A better tale to tell. For the project. Extracts from my – or better, your. 8211; poem will be read at the opening and on each day. The Empire’s Death March. Of course, I have included all shades of opinion: consciously interweaving the a...

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gathering: Bovaglie, Glen Girnock

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Bovaglie, Glen Girnock. This is an abandoned house in Glen Girnock, but it still has a name: Bovaglie, once a ferm-toun of sixteen long houses scattered around three wells. I took this picture back in June 2008. It may have been my first visit, I don’t recall. I’m not sure if this was the first digital photograph I made here, but I would return to Bovaglie another six times. What do I want to achieve? Do I want people to see my images of these abandoned houses and be angry, puzzled, sad, or all three?

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gathering: Leave behind…

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But named for what? Cruaidh-Leac, Loinn-na-Biorag, and Cladhan are from Richard Perry’s memoir of Glen Feshie. Allt Ghealain rises on The Maim and flows into the Dhé, east of Crathie. Allt an Beal rises on Càrn Damhaireach, the rut cairn,. And flows into Allt Cristie Beag; Alexander says that broom related names appear so frequently because it was important for thatch and fodder. Am Beitheachann, which Watson gives as the little birch place. Canup is from the Gaelic, A’ Chairbh, the bent ridge. Cruinneac...

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gathering: A Fool's Mind

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A fool’s mind. Shine every last leaf. On the birches of. Pluck you a flake. Plait you the tale. Of a crepuscular tiger. Look away if you. Get a rise out. Of Clach a’ Bhodaich. By Allt nan Cuigeal. Find where hazel grow. But mending a fool’s. Composed after Andrew Schelling’s translation of a poem by the 14. Century Kashmiri poet Lal Ded. Tom Chluaran, the hillock of the thistles. On the lower slopes of Sròn Dubh, the black snout. Coire nan Craobh-bheithe, the corrie of the birches. Allt nan Cuigeal is the.

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gathering: Contouring

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The New Walking, as I call it, is one of the themes I will be exploring in Gathering. New it isn’t: Nan Shepherd was proposing proprioceptive – awareness of the body in space, its parts, and their relation to a location – ways of perceiving the landscape in The Living Mountain. Written in the 1940’s. Shepherd sees the mountainscape prone, lying down, or topsy-turvy, looking out between the V-frame of her legs – a point-of-view taken up by Alice Ladenburg in her handstands project. This post is a collabor...

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gathering: Sketches (I)

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As part of the research for Gathering I have produced occasional sketches, most of which represent linguistic toponym. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Gathering: an eco-poetic guide to The Cairngorms. Cruinneachadh: stiùireadh eag-bhàrdail mun mhonadh ruadh. Inspired by the place-name collections of Adam Watson. Commissioned by Hauser and Wirth. Supported by the Leverhulme Trust. As Artist in Residence in the Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen. The Bothy on the Hill. John Duff’s Walk.

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gathering: Misnames

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8216; A language is a dialect with an army of cartographers to defend it. Misnames and elided names. Don’t begin and end with English-speaking map surveyors. In recent years, the Ordnance Survey has entered into a fruitful collaborated with. Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland project) to revise their maps. The welcome addition of Gaelic on public signs chimes with a renewed popular interest and, in time, the language may receive the. In The Highlands the. Of finer thoughts and purer e...

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Alec Finlay: 07/17/15

http://alecfinlayblog.blogspot.com/2015_07_17_archive.html

160; ALEC FINLAY. A better tale to tell. A poem is ‘a form to hold the language of another’ (Brian Teare). In this new work the poem itself contains nothing but the language of others. A better tale to tale. Is composed entirely from submissions to the Smith Commission. A better tale to tell. For the project. Extracts from my – or better, your. 8211; poem will be read at the opening and on each day. The Empire’s Death March. Of course, I have included all shades of opinion: consciously interweaving the a...

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Alec Finlay: 04/10/14

http://alecfinlayblog.blogspot.com/2014_04_10_archive.html

160; ALEC FINLAY. In autumn 2013 I was asked to create Scotland’s National Memorial for Organ and Tissue Donors, commissioned by the Scottish Government, for a site in the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. I have given my project the title, Tigh, House: a memorial home for a wilding garden. A CLEARING IN THE GARDEN. What I was looking for came to be defined in a phrase that arose in conversation with Colin Will, who accompanied me on a walk. As one of the gardeners remarked, this is the only place in the ...