Negative Space

When I first began taking photographs of the interior of Castle Dillon the first thing that really appealed to me was the negative space, the contrast between light and dark. Each shot was almost like an illustration from a strange tale, like those of Edgar Allan Poe, even Alice in Wonderland. I sketched these a while back in black ink and I found my mind wandering as I did so, to stories such as those mentioned.

Because I am part of an exhibition which will be on the 1st of December I decided to work with this space, leaving the objects that I am using  to ‘grow’  aside for a while, possibly until after Christmas as growth takes time and this time of year is not particularly conducive to that.

I chose the smaller of the windows shown above as the beginnings for the piece I want to produce for the 1st December exhibition.

All photographs and illustrations are © Sarah Hutchinson Burke – Please do not use without permission.

Castle Dillon – 20 Years Ago

Much to my delight I stumbled upon old photos of Castle Dillon belonging to my grandmother. These are probably 20 years old at least and the last photo is of me aged four possibly…clambering over a rock by the lake which the house overlooks. I remember walks in the woods and around the lake very well, though it is now private, and separately owned.

I’m hoping to get into the museum in Armagh soon, to see if they have any old photos of the building. Though this project is not particularly historical it has its origins in that. I think it is important for me to build a narrative of pictures in my head while I work.

All photographs and illustrations are © Sarah Hutchinson Burke – Please do not use without permission.

Damp Designs 2009 – 2011

Though these photos are scattered through my previous posts I thought showing them together would be a good way of putting across, or explaining, how I hope my work will progress. The cleaner/pinker photos were taken in 2009, my first visit inside Castle Dillon, the darker lot are from different times this year. It shows the way the damp has caused this fungus to spread. Obviously this is devastating to the building but it is such  beautiful devastation.

All photographs and illustrations are © Sarah Hutchinson Burke – Please do not use without permission.

Mushrooms, Fungus & Spores

While I’m waiting for the grass and moss to grow, which seems to be a lot similar to watching paint dry, I collected a few mushrooms which are always easily spotted at this time of year. The different varieties are amazing, these are probably not just as unhealthy as whatever is growing on the walls of Castle Dillon. I’m not ready to ‘grow’ mushrooms/fungus yet as I need to do an awful lot more reading on the subject but I have just purchased a small grow kit and my experiments with that will be blogged as soon as they happen.

I used these mushrooms for spore prints, spores are essentially the seed of mushrooms – the most simple explanation. Wonderful to look at, these have been preserved with fixative so I presume this will also stop them from sprouting up in the middle of my sketchbook.

The blue tint on these mushrooms made it impossible for me not to experiment with some watercolour illustration. I have been thinking of keeping a personal diary of plants that I work with in and around Castle Dillon, much like a botanic journal but kept solely for a personal reason.

A Recipe For Moss

Since I spent the summer reading about botanists and botanical illustrators such as Elizabeth Twining, I have an urge to draw every plant in sight. I have no idea whether the above recipe will be successful but hopefully I will know this in about 6 weeks time. 

I draw so I can think, it allows a certain escape and although I want this project to be more than the drawing I usually stick to, I don’t believe cutting it out altogether would be wise. I plan to continue documenting by drawing simply because I enjoy it.

See this post for experiments with moss and this recipe: https://castledillon.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/gathering-moss/

Gathering Moss

I began to gather moss from shady places around my garden and along paths and walls. The moss from the paths and walls seems to be a different variety to the one which I gathered from under trees. Using both will hopefully result in at least one of them growing.

Moss cleaned and free of debris.

Finely chopped moss, smaller fragments allow the moss to spread, and rainwater in a bucket. Rainwater helps the moss to grow because it is usually more acidic than tap water.

I got this phonebook from Castle Dillon; it was already damp, tattered and slightly mouldy, ideal for growing conditions.

I added some moss before chopping the rest. I decided that adding it in every state, including using the recipes to follow would allow more chance of some growing.

See the moss recipes I posted previously: This one is a mixture of buttermilk and moss.

Some of the original mould can be seen on the phonebook in this photo. I added the buttermilk moss between various pages.

I soaked some of the moss in rainwater.

Some of this moss I added with yoghurt and some I added with rainwater.

View from the end of the book with all the varieties of moss and various recipes between the pages. If nothing happens at least the textures and folds at the end of the book are worth photographing alone.

See this post for moss growing recipe: https://castledillon.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/a-recipe-for-moss/

Growth – Part 1

I’m beginning my ‘growing’ with a telephone book and some grass seed.

I went in search of grass seed at the beginning of the week, only to be informed it had gone up in price four times in the last year because of a ‘grass seed crisis’ and no seed was actually produced in this country…

Luckily I have cousins who own a garden centre and were able to supply some for less than a quid per seed, which was the price I had been bracing myself for.

I began by soaking the telephone book completely, and simply adding the grass seed between the pages. I have no idea whether it will take but I am holding off adding any other ingredients to the piece because I want it to form as naturally as possible, if there is no sign of growth after a week or so I may add something. At the moment it is sitting outside my studio watching the mist and the moon and hopefully it will show some signs of growth in the next while. I have forgotten how long growing anything actually takes and I’m sure patience will finally be one of my virtues by the end of this year.

Found & Collected

Collecting is one of the things I am best at. Unfortunately I never found a healthy balance between collecting and hoarding. These are found papers/objects etc from the house which I’m sure I will find some way of using. The books are what I intend to experiment with first.

● Wallpaper – this is the paper in the room which is growing mould on the raised pattern (I can’t remember the technical term for that).

● Four books including the Northern Ireland phone book which I will be using for my growth experiments.

● A card that has obviously been sent to staff on the closure of the home, there are words in there that may suit as part of my statement for the show on November 28th.

● A bunch of keys, no longer needed because all of the doors either no longer exist or have been broken open.

● Philosophy of Care and Fire Action Plan, both still in their frames, considering these pieces for installation.

● Fake/silk flowers, decaying while the real flowers/weeds flourish. There may be some sort of irony there…

● Handwritten notes, there is something strange about walking into an empty house to find a note someone wrote over ten years ago, pamphlets and certs.

● Birthday card sent to a resident of the home.

● Chestnuts and beech nuts which I fully intend to plant whether they become part of the project or not.

● Another scrap of wallpaper, none of the papers are as striking as the pink one with mould.

29/08/2011 – Documenting Growth and Decay

It was an overcast day when I decided to revisit the castle for documentation before term started again. Clouds threatened downpour at any moment and it matched my mood. Once inside I felt a strange and unwelcome feeling which I never quite shook off, in spite of my intent to work. With a sense of purpose I knew just what I wanted and needed to photograph and perhaps what I should collect that may be of interest at some point during this project. Since my last visit in February it seemed to have deteriorated more than in the two years between my previous visits. Sinks and other fittings had been ripped out and smashed. I am familiar with the work of vandals in other vacant spots and this didn’t seem to fit, my romantic notions of the place upset by the idea of such destruction.

The wall which had once only a small area of black mould due to damp was now covered in various corners. The air felt heavy and very unhealthy but the beauty of this was undeniable, as can be seen in the photos above. Several suspicious looking fungi grew from cracks in the walls and other surfaces and mould had spread a lot in the last few months.

One room at the top has a window broken and is most affected by damp which has caused it to grow moss over the entire floor area and tall weeds have sprouted in these ideal conditions. It is a surreal feeling to stand on the top floor of such a grand building and see a room which belongs ‘outdoors’.

The philosophy of care lies on the floor, glass broken in the frame, the healthy and safety law next to it.

In a small entry to the basement two walking sticks sit, one on the floor and one leaning against the wall, as if waiting for their owners return.

I leave the castle alone again with my photos and a bag of discarded objects.

All photographs and illustrations are © Sarah Hutchinson Burke – Please do not use without permission.

February 2011

Last February I completed a mock bursary awards application based on my idea of running a project at Castle Dillon:

“The proposed project is to take place on a site known as castle Dillon in Co. Armagh, the former home of the Molyneux family and originally the home of John Dillon, the orginal castle was built in 1610.

More recently the house was used by the British Army and during the 1990’s as a care home for the elderly. The house has fallen into a state of disrepair, much of the furniture still remains and former patient’s property lies scattered on the floor.

My proposal is to document the decay remnants and memories by using much of this material within the house and including using my skills as an illustrator and printmaker to develop a body of work to be exhibited locally, bringing local awareness to the existence of such a site which could potentially be brought back to life through redevelopment.

Using existing materials on site is in keeping with my practice, not solely from a ‘recycling’ point of view but the ability of materials that serve one particular purpose being repurposed for use as ‘art’ and the range of materials available at Castle Dillon will enable me to investigate this process thoroughly and is also appropriate to draw attention to the disused site and it’s possibilities.”

I have taken inspiration from this statement and much of it remains similar to my intentions this year.

All photographs and illustrations are © Sarah Hutchinson Burke – Please do not use without permission.