TUESDAY 9TH MARCH
I spent the morning at the school undertaking a proper site survey. My brief is to create a sculpture in the playground, so I had a good look at all the possible spaces. Recently the school has acquired a strip of grassy land that is currently out of bounds and unused. It is, however, the warmest outdoor space, as it faces west and is relatively sheltered, and when the sun shines up here that is something to make the most of! It also has the best views over the voe and surrounding hills. I came to the conclusion that I could turn this forgotten but potentially promising space into a secret garden; a place where the children can play, hide, relax and enjoy the grass underfoot and whatever interactive elements I end up installing there. Having scrutinized the space, I would like to make something that is multi-purpose, with play/functional purposes that kids can run around, jump over, sit on, etc, as well as fulfilling an aesthetic requirement.
In the afternoon I went to visit Margaret Manson, our school knit teacher. Knitting is taught to all pupils in primary schools on Shetland. Margaret told me about the local knitting tradition and its history. Coincidentally my landlady, Jenny Bradley, also teaches knitting and has lent me a wealth of books and samples of Fair Isle knitting. Fair Isle is the most remote of the Shetland Islands, located half way between Shetland and Orkney and it is where the tradition of iconic, highly colourful knitted design commenced, becoming hugely fashionable in the 1930s. The choice of this as the guiding theme for my project lends itself perfectly to the medium of mosaic, as the knit patterns, fascinating as aesthetic designs in themselves, are composed of geometric patterns on a grid square base.
In the evening we held a welcome evening in the school, which parents and their children attended, along with members of the schools services team and community officers.
