Villafield Trilogy & Tragedy
I took this photograph 9 years ago when I went to Glasgow School of Art library to do some research for a commission. I was so excited to have caught the delivery of what I assumed were new timber components to reinstate the Mackintosh library. Here below is Page\Park’s model, beautifully made by Andrew Zahn relating to the post/beam detail, which I photographed during the installation of the RSA annual exhibition.
I was reminded of this happenstance when I was updating my portfolio with new photographs of the work that I made as a result of my research that day.
My artworks for the Trails + Tales commission at Bishopbriggs explore the creative legacy of the Villafield Press, a printing house which was part of the publishing firm A. Blackie and Son. The Glasgow School of Art Library holds a large collection of works by this press in their Talwin Morris Collection, Morris was Blackie’s influential Art Director. I used a number of books in the collection for research, looking not only at Morris’ characteristic Glasgow Style but also the production techniques behind the books themselves. Villafield Trilogy, draws on Morris’ cover for ‘A Very Odd Girl’. One side of the work depicts the same colour scheme used in Morris’ cover, sandblasted and painted into a slim block of granite, shaped to suggest a book. The other side contrasts in style and is based on Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s thistle motif from the library at Hillhouse in Helensburgh. The idea for the artwork grew from the discovery that Talwin Morris introduced his boss Walter Blackie to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and from this introduction came the commission for the celebrated Hillhouse.
