'Precario' (1990) Cecilia Vicuña 

'maximum fragility' can work against 'maximum power' 

These words from artist Julia Riddiough  who provided us with a walking chakra for our fragile lives.

http://www.juliariddiough.com

This gave us a wonderful start to our walk on Friday from Dundas Street Gallery to Inverleith house.

a quote from Julia's work :

'If you find you are at a crossroads and aren't sure which way to go , look to a gut feeling in your solar plexus for guidance. '

And so we begin

I have published the full text of all pieces mentioned in this blog on my website:

http://www.elspeth-billie-penfold.com

This walk is part of the Threads exhibition at Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh, curated by The Artist's Pool.

The exhibition brings together artists from varied creative practices, backgrounds, cultures
and countries to explore the threads that connect us through our experiences, humanity, gender, friendship and relationship.

The artist and printmaker Nicola Weir, made us some motifs to carry in our pockets. The process for this piece has been documented on our Facebook page Thread and Word https://www.facebook.com/ThreadandWord/ , a beautiful piece which echoes the power of fragility.

We were joined on our walk by the artist Naomi Garriock who soon got us started by helping to unravel the first ribbon to be read

There were 10 ribbons on spools with the words of the poem printed on them.

There were a total of ten ribbons

allocated randomly to walkers.

Jil Rock, Sprang , (March)

The ribbons are a development from the first Thread and Word Walk in Shoreditch last March, when the artist Jill Rock did a performance of ' Sprang'
using a gold ribbon.




Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean artist whose art is a recurring influence in my work. I am from Bolivia and use weaving and rope making as a part of my art practice.


I make ropes for my fellow walkers and ask them to record their memory of the walk through knots in the ropes.
The ropes reference my cultural roots and the history I learnt as a child growing up in South America.

They also connect with ideas I have explored through research into Art, Sociology and Social Anthropology.

A sobering moment when we read ,

The Women came out at night Las Mujeres salieron a la noche,

Poem by Jaime Huenún,

With thanks to the curator Roberta Bacic
http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/conflicttextiles



Over the bridge I suddenly spotted the Leith Walkway which was perfect , for:

 'Passing Through the Shadow of the Earth'

a poem offered to us for our walk by the  Ecopoet, Professor Jonathan Skinner.

For more about Jonathan: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/people/drjonathanskinner/

and as referenced in the poem,

.............. Heron..........,


serendipity

As we approached the Arboretum Way Naomi Garriock set us some rope based tasks
For more about Naomi:http://instagram.com/garriockmountain

Followed by a few more readings of ribbons on our way to the Royal Botanical Gardens and Inverleith house.

Naomi then set us up for a team event in knotting ropes,
 it all got a bit competitive

and tangled.

Finally a reading of a paper written by the writer and academic Judy Dermott

' Vicuña and Women Centred Modernism'

I quote: 'Vicuna’s Modernism, twists, and jives, she connects us to mythic time   through her foremothers, who employing their bodies, weaved and plaited and told stories as they did so, gossiping, stitching and when language failed, using the alphabet of pattern and colour, collapsing time, and crucially healing the fracture between body and mind.'

(please check my website for the full transcript)

and so to tea and scones! Thank you all for making it so much fun.