Art, Heart and Mind – Labyrinths to be Created at Former Mental Hospital
Spring Fling installation artists explore what makes our world tick
Four labyrinths, including one made from five tons of sand, are among the striking works by installation artists at this year’s Spring Fling.
The windows of the Wigtown County Buildings are also being decorated with paper cutouts, creating vivid stained glass-like silhouettes which explore the life and character of the town.
At the same time performance artist Alice Francis will be introducing audiences to her new creation “The Cleaner”, while Caroline Dalton uses beautifully made models to explore the impact which scale has on our perceptions.
Jim Buchanan has been fascinated with labyrinths ever since he was a child and used to create them on the sandy beaches where he grew up in the west of Ireland.
Nowadays he is increasingly interested in the benefits they can bring for health and wellbeing, and works with a Canadian children’s hospital, where he has created light labyrinths which are used for therapy with young patients. His art has a worldwide reputation and he has created permanent and temporary labyrinths across the UK and overseas.
Visitors to Spring Fling will be able to see four specially-created temporary labyrinths at the Crichton Campus in Dumfries – which was once a hospital for people with mental illness.
Jim said: “I will be creating a series of labyrinths one will be around 25 metres across, made using five tons of sand, in a large courtyard area.
“Two will be delicate, indoor pieces, one in salt and the other in sugar. These are part of my ongoing exploration of the physiology of the human body.
“The labyrinths recall how this was a place that was created as what was then known as an ‘asylum’. The idea is to get people thinking about the inside and outside of the mind.”
The fourth labyrinth will be mown into a nearby lawn and has been inspired by Jim’s work with pupils at St Michael’s Primary School.
He said: “We have explored the relationship between our footsteps and our breathing.
“I think visitors will enjoy walking round all four labyrinths. Most people are pleasantly surprised by how time seems to stand still during their walk – in some ways labyrinths are ‘time machines’!”
Now a university campus, some of the buildings date back to 1838 when they were built for the Crichton Royal Hospital, described as the last and grandest of Scotland’s royal asylums.
Jim will also be displaying the results of some of his research with the Canadian hospital, where clinicians are finding that walking labyrinths can be a valuable way of helping certain patients, including those with eating disorders.
More generally he finds that they are a great way to help people slow down, relax, and let go of their troubles for a while.
Astrid Jaekel’s Windows on Wigtown project, a residency run by Spring Fling and the Wigtown Book Festival, is all about the workings of a community. After interviewing residents she created delicate cutouts with images and quotes reflecting people’s views on the town.
The cutouts will fill 17 windows in the building, some of them very large, and at night they will be backlit and glow like the stained glass windows of a church.
Astrid, who is based in Edinburgh, said: “When I started the residency I had never been to Wigtown, so I was fascinated to interview people about what they thought about the place. They told me about how it had been through very hard times, but some feel it’s on the way back up, partly due to the book festival.”
Astrid’s work developed from a fascination with light and shadow and during the Spring Fling weekend she will be running a workshop to teach others about the highly delicate art of papercutting.
By contrast, Caroline Dalton, a native Doonhamer who now lives in Cumbria, will return to Dumfries to exhibit some of her quirky sculptures at the Gracefield Arts Centre.
The models she creates, of machinery like diggers, extend from the size of toys right up to full scale – but disconcertingly they are often pure white.
She says: “I’m originally from Dumfries, so it will be lovely to come back there for Spring Fling. I will be exhibiting a variety of work, some of it miniature models – pedestal pieces.
“A model is like a blank canvas, with a suggestion of what something could be. I’m very interested in the effects that scale have on our perceptions and a lots of my models are white – perhaps like a prototype.”
Alice Francis will be showing working drawings, photos, films, costumes, props and installations of past, present and future projects at her studio at Standingstone Farm, Auchincairn.
Among them will be “The Cleaner”, who is a rather old-fashioned looking cleaning lady complete with trolley, broom and feather duster who is on a mission to make the Scottish countryside spick and span.
Alice eventually hopes her character will be able to embark on a major odyssey. She said: “What I’m hoping to do next is take my cleaning trolley on a long distance trek from Dumfries and Galloway up into the Highlands – cleaning and polishing the landscape along the way.”
If her plans work out Alice would walk the hills and trails, stopping to camp at night, and use film and photography to record the expedition and the reactions of those she meets along the way.
Leah Black, Spring Fling Director, said: “The installation and performance art at this year’s Spring Fling will add a really dramatic extra dimension to the event. What’s fascinating about each of the projects is that while they are very diverse, they all raise questions about what makes us tick as individuals and communities.”
