Figure focus for seaside art project
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GOLSPIE may soon be welcoming an evocative stranger to enlighten its Shore Street area – an awe-inspiring sculpture of a reclining figure, looking out to the sea and the rising sun.
And local schoolchildren will help Highland-born sculptor Duncan Elliott to create it.
The idea for the Shore Street Open Space Project was the result of a creative collaboration between Duncan and local actor James Yuill, with funding from The Silver Rock Foundation, the new organisation based in Golspie which aims to enable local young people to fulfil their potential through the arts.
The androgynous sculpture will be made out of red sandstone rocks and boulders from the surrounding hills and is the main thrust of a three-part concept which will include a stone circle and a wooden causeway.
If it receives planning approval from Highland Council it will be erected as part of a five-day workshop running from July 21 to 25 for 24 young people, aged 12-plus, from Golspie High School.
As well as the sculpture, the workshops will include Acrobalance (Duncan’s partner Anna is a circus performer); photography/filming and editing; stage management and production; and percussion.
Duncan told us: “There are three sculptural interventions which I think can be achieved within the time frame.
“A causeway is proposed to run from the shore, made out of timbers which were washed away from the pier during the last couple of storms and which have ended up on the golf course and other areas.
“Recycling the wood from the pier plays on the notion of appearing, disappearing, and reappearing, like the sun and the pier itself.
“The causeway will lead the eye from the rising sun to the proposed stone circle. Incorporating a circle on the east, sunrise-facing, side of the site seems a natural proposal.
“It will take shape with the tallest stones at the sea-facing side, progressively becoming lower towards the west, reflecting sunrise and sunset. The formation of it means that it is also able to function as a performing space. And, appropriately for an area where children play, it will be child-sized.
“And behind the stone circle will be the sculpture, which will be slightly larger than life-size. The figure is of the land, made of stone, formed by drilling and pinning together red sandstone boulders from Golspie. It is designed to be integrally connected to the land, and acts as an observer, watching the light of the sun rise up from the sea, and travel along the causeway to play with the stone circle.
“I decided on a reclining figure because it was relaxed and at ease but at the same time confidently looking towards the rising sun, giving a feeling of positivity and a new dawn. It is meant to represent the optimism of youth.”
Duncan, who is originally from Fort William, the son of a shepherd, now lives in the Mendips in Somerset, but has worked in Georgia, America, and also in Crete where he was a monumental marble sculptor.
He met James when his son, Charlie, started going out with James’s daughter, Annie-Rose.
He says he is very excited about the Shore Street project.
“Ideas are developing all the time and it is a fluid situation. But I must emphasise that this all depends on us receiving planning permission.”
The project attracted the support of Golspie Community Council when James presented it to them and members of the public on Monday night.
He went on to tell the Northern Times: “We aim for the workshops to be exciting and enjoyable as well as educational, but they will also be very disciplined. I don’t want pupils there who don’t want to be there. For instance, if they turn up late on the second day, they’re out. I want them to be enthusiastic.”
He is meeting Golspie High head teacher Mark Evans later this month who will have selected pupils who have expressed an interest in taking part.
James explained that the work taking place at Shore Street will be filmed as part of the movie and production part of the workshops, whilst the sculpture – which has not yet been named – will be unveiled at the end of the five days.
* The Silver Rock Foundation will be one of two beneficiaries from September’s Celebrity Golf Day, which is being organised by a committee, headed by James Yuill, from Golspie Golf Club. The other is cancer support charity Maggie’s Highland.
Already signed up to take part in the event on September 20 are Sir Kenneth Branagh, Jack Shepherd (who was James’s “boss” in the popular detective series Wycliffe), John Michie, Clive Mantle, Kevin MacNally, Blythe Duff, Gordon Kennedy, Jimmy Chisholm and James Bamber, among others.
