CANOPY
2008

The natural world was the major influence and starting point for our work entitled CANOPY.

In the summer of 2008 we were invited by Perthshire Visual Art Forum to explore Birnam in Perthshire with a view to siting a piece of artwork. Our research revealed two places that had a particular appeal. The first was the woodland by the River Earn that incorporates the magnificent, ancient Birnam oak. Here the strong sense of a living link to the past was deeply moving. The second place was the interior of St Mary’s Church with its beautiful Burne-Jones stained glass windows, and its blank arched window in the bell tower overlooking the nave. In the church there were plentiful reminders of the natural world, from the lush greens of the plants and foliage in the stained glass, to the discarded pictures of woodland animals and the dead crow and butterfly we found in the bell tower.

Together the places suggested a narrative and it was our response to this that informed the work we made.

The work is a subtle homage to nature. The beauty of the summer canopy of the ancient Birnam oak was recorded using contemporary materials and techniques, and recreated on acrylic panels that echo the dimensions of the blank window in the church bell tower. The arched window form was suspended high in the branches of one of the ancient trees close to the Birnam oak and documented there. Thus the influence of the Church was retained but dislocated and the summer foliage was artificially preserved as the seasons change.

The panels were then shown indoors, high in the stairwell of the Birnam House Hotel. Still and moving images of the work suspended in the woods were shown on a small screen alongside, and next to that headphones played a sound installation of woodland birdsong.

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