Paper St Kilda

Artist Deirdre Nelson has arrived in Dunedin and while resident in the Caselberg House is busy researching her St Kilda project which highlights contemporary St Kildans of Scotland, New Zealand and Australia.  You can find the latest on her project here - The Kildas

Last week I was in Wellington and made my way to National Archives to see what paper records I could find. Since I like looking back at the past I was not disappointed and learnt some interesting new things. I had not known about the Bird Islands off St Kilda or that there are some rocks off the coast of Kaikoura also named St Kilda. Next stop is the Hocken Library this Saturday.

Lovely stamps

St Kilda Post Office blueprints

St Kilda Rocks off the East Coast of the South Island, near Kaikoura

Caselberg Open Day

Film and photos by Steve Ting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX3LcNImhzE&feature=plcp&context=C3a01baaUDOEgsToPDskJ8HLtC56nh-1TZsoVpfQAq

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveting/6800041511/in/photostream

Rolling beads

A while back I weathered and rusted a dictionary over a year as part of the erosion bundle project. I did not know what to do with the pages until I read about Rachel Chiesley aka 'Lady Grange' while on residency at the Caselberg House (I can't believe it, she has a Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lady-Grange/135930719772460?sk=info ).  During her seven years of imprisonment on St Kilda Island, Scotland she tried to get messages to the mainland - a common way of the Islanders was to tie a note around a cork and throw it off to sea. Rachel successfully smuggled a note out hidden in a spool of wool, unfortunately it did not reach the intended recipient for two years, a little too late. By rolling the words of the dictionary into beads I am changing there meaning and loosing many words, effectively making the dictionary useless. However it is poignant when words like SAIL and WISH are revealed. The rusting makes the beads appear a little like corks (or cigarette filters unfortunately). To mimic her idea I have wound them onto a bobbin sourced from the Alliance Textiles Woolen Mill - maybe this will be a way to display them, I am undecided yet. 365 beads are wound already, my ideal is to roll a bead for every day of her exile...only 6 years to go - better get busy!

St Kilda resources

Well, I'm looking forward to hearing Kat's stories of her youth in the St Kilda/St Clair area! 

In the meantime I have sourced some books and found in one of them a fantastic photo of tweed which was produced in St Kilda, Scotland. I am collecting old blankets from the St Kilda Dunedin second hand shops for the project, as they speak of the suburban history of the area, here they are - rolled up in the same manner as the tweed was in the photo.

Caselberg Retreat down the Bay Resident 21st-28th January 2012

Today's walk along the breezy John Wilson Drive marks the start of building research for an upcoming residency and project.  I saw bees, marshmallow flowers, seagulls, dogs, cyclists and seaweed strewn like calligraphy as I hurried against the weather coming in.  I especially liked the weathered road markings.
 
Lynn Taylor, Artist, Caselberg Retreat down the Bay Resident 21st-28th January 2012
Lynn will be beginning a new project based  around St Kilda in Dunedin and will focus the week on  working with a recipe book that was published in the St  Kilda community some years ago.  The St Kilda project  concept has been instigated by UK artist Deirdre Nelson (http://www.deirdre-nelson.com/) who is proposing to  investigate and respond to St Kilda's in Scotland, Dunedin and Melbourne. Author Christos Tsiolkas (http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=311&author=536) is the Melbourne link and sometime in 2012 Deidre hopes  to travel to visit both locations and see where working collaboratively takes the creative output.  Lynn very much hopes  that people from the public with stories or photos about St Kilda could come and share them with her through the  residency.

OPEN DAY AT THE CASELBERG HOUSE, Broad Bay, with Artist LYNN TAYLOR
SATURDAY 28TH JANUARY 2012 (open to members of the public)
11.00am – 3.00pm
Lynn Taylor will have the results of the weeks residency on display as well as  some of the book samples which will also be shown at the book binding workshop the following day... there will be an etching press set up  (outside in the garden if a sunny day) and some inks and  paper etc available so people can come and have a go at making a print (free)

new project

A new project is in the pipeline, here is a teaser image until it gets underway! But you can help! If you have any tales (historical or contemporary)of St Kilda, Dunedin, please leave them as comments.