Reflecting on the Illuminations

Last week I went down to Longfield again in order to meet up with Jane Ridland. She lives near the site of our last illumination at the Auld Chapel, and she also got involved in the project by helping with site selection and making a film in a Light Lab. We planned to talk about the illumination with a view to possibly transcribing some of our conversation for our final publication. I had the most wonderful time. Jane had such an interesting perspective on the illumination, for she grew up near the Gable End and has thus known it since childhood. I also enjoyed reflecting on the illumination both in its "own right" and in relation to the others that she'd seen. We got into a very interesting conversation about the nature of the movement of light, "earthbound" v "skybound".

Catching Breath

A lot has happened since I last wrote an entry. We celebrated our final illumination, which was at the Auld Chapel, Longfield, in Dunrossness, with a lovely evening at the Sumburgh Hotel. I couldn't get over the difference between the illumination in early March and then in mid-April. For starters, there's no snow now. It's the first time that I'd seen it without snow as I went away in the first week of March when the ground was still white. The other big difference of course is the longer days. You can in this photo by Mark Sinclair taken in April that the sky is very light compared to the darkness in which I had been accustomed to seeing previous illuminations through the winter. The illumination came down finally on l8th April. I went along the last night and filmed some video footage. I had to wait until about 10 pm in order for it to be dark enough. I felt very sad to see the last one go dark. But also relieved as it's been a long, intensive period of work. Now we're beginning to prepare for the exhibition in July at Bonhoga with the lace knitters' work.