Sow (Dig, Rake, Riddle. Sow. Water. Weed. Pull)
- Artist:
- Type: Print
- Medium: Screenprint
- Production Date: 2020
- Copy Number: 3
- Edition: 30
- Description: This print was created by Christine Borland and produced in DCA Print Studio as part of 2020 Editions: a portfolio of prints created to mark an extraordinary, challenging year, and to support DCA's recovery from a crisis that has gripped the entire cultural sector.
"This print is the first expression of a new body of work based around exploring the cultural memory and embodied knowledge of the life-cycle, processing and distribution of Scottish flax into linen.
About the process:
Garden Flax (Linum usitatissimum)
DIG: it starts with one line of string laid on the lawn, in early spring. Further lines radiate from the centre to make six segments. Cutting down with the spade, I shuffle around clockwise, joining the outer point of each string to make one continuous circular brown slit in the grass. And then I dig. RAKE: the soil underneath the turf is poor because the garden is still really part of the beach across the road. I wheelbarrow in dark brown topsoil, and rake it together with some compost until I think I have a seed-bed of ‘fine tilth‘. SOW: Mother‘s Day, 31st March - one daughter weighs enough of the silky brown seeds to make a dense planting of 2000 plants per square meter. Another 5 family members are lined up and made to rehearse until they can sow their allocated section in a smooth, circular choreography. RIDDLE: the family stand on the turf perimeter and watch me walk from the outside to the centre of the circle, riddling the finest of soil over the rich brown seeds, which I can clearly see sitting on the surface. I don‘t mention it, but worry they are not evenly distributed. WATER: flax seedlings are ‘frost tolerant‘ and they begin to emerge on April 16th after sleet and snow. I pull one up; the tough, branching root makes up two-thirds of the plant. Next day the hottest recorded spell of April weather begins. I hadn‘t anticipated it, but I water every second day, using 24 watering cans each time. WEED: there are many vigorous weeds, most of which are new in my garden so probably arrived in the topsoil. I look them up as I weed and nearly all have associations with traditional medicine. e.g. Plantain; Leaves in poultice used for sores, blisters, swellings, and insect stings. PULL: in late June the first fragile blue flowers open, each lasts a day before fading to form a seed-head. On a sunny morning 116 days after sowing, when most of the seed heads have yellowed, I pull the flax. Working from the outside of the circle, I gather a bunch with my right hand and pull up with my left, repeating until I can‘t hold anymore. At the end of the day only scraggly weeds remain inside the circle, the outside is edged by 60 bundles of flax, laid on the grass."
Christine Borland - Dimensions: Unf 42 cm H x 29.7cm w Framed 51cm H x 38cm W
- Acquisition Note: Purchase fully funded by NFA
- Digital Copy:A digital copy exists.
- Location: Store
- Accession Number: 2021.4
- Contact: University of Stirling Art Collection
