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the crown road wall installation - a visual narrative exploring scottish beliefs systems and highland myths. this 65 metre long and 5 metre high wall based narrative took the better part of 1 year to complete from initial conversations through research trips to the artworks creation and finally installation in inverness city centre. many people, many conversations, many cups of coffee and a few pints of highland honey ale went into the creation this work commissioned by Inverness Old Town Art and funded by Highland Council.



The story I have written in my own very stark visual language is one which explores the belief systems of the highland community of Inverness and tells of their spiritual relationship with each other and with the land they inhabit, or perhaps the land which inhabits them, whatever the case I find it impossible to separate the two.

The three panel installation can be read on a few levels each offering more and more as the tale unfolds and the community about whom it was made and for whom it was created begin to interpret the visual narrative.

On an immediate and literal visual level the three panels explore the relationship that exists between the city and the land that surrounds it. You travel from the gated city, a gate that never shuts, over the skinny bouncing bridge and on into the rural wilderness beyond. A glance from a fast moving car or brief look from a swift footed tourist will get this immediate connection and hopefully the visual impact will encourage them to think a little more about the content of the work.





On a secondary level the panels might be read as a metaphysical landscape which travels from a formal, ritualised and stylised deer clan "city" end to an organic, natural perhaps shamanistic wolf clan "wilderness" at the lower end. The transitional panel through which you must travel between these two metaphysical spaces is a solitary journey across the narrow footbridge, abandoning your treasured worldly possessions, carrying all that you own. It is on this journey that you must weigh up these two alternative yet complimentary sides to spirituality that i have discovered co-exist in this highland community.

The artwork reflects this duality and explores this relationship with the natural environment. I am exploring the similarities and differences using stylised and natural forms of representation, each one yielding to the others authority as your eye travels across the work, the same yet contrasting, two ways of examining the contradictory fundamental needs that lies within so many of us.

Cathedral as the works' name is a dual reference. It refers to the film Logans’ Run where Cathedral is the name of the lawless overgrown and abandoned urban space populated by feral children that lies between the state controlled “utopia” and the untamed, mythic yet under populated natural wilderness beyond. Whatever you are searching for in this alternative society you must cross cathedral to find it. It is also a personal reference to the talk I attended by Neville Gabie in Inverness Cathedral at Re-Imagining the city which inspired me and touched my soul directly through the power of art and communication in a way no religion ever does.



THE INSTALLATION - a one week installation at the end of an eight week road closure meant we had to be very well prepared and organised for the installation, the weather and the plan held and everything went like clockwork. The panels were printed locally by acorn signs and are made of dibond an aluminium composite which is weather proof and robust enough for the roadside location.


left to right -richard sawicki, site manager, top blether and lender of xxl clothing and boots, gary and calum, acorns staff who took maximum care with the trimming and fitting of the panels, artist mike inglis and of course susan christie of inverness old town art.


me and forty pockets, so named for his penchant for wearing all his charitably 'gifted' coats at once. He often slept in the station when the weather was poor and the local people made sure he had enough clothes to keep him warm.


gary and calum attaching the dibond sections which came in sheets of 1.5 metres by 3 metres. the shaped outline/profile was cut to a supplied pre-drawn cutting path and accurate to the mm. these guys were painstakingly precise


this shot gives an idea of the scale of the installation which is very difficult to imagine from the photographs in such an awkardly shaped location. making this space work was a real challenge during the design stages.


gate detail - showing the intricate level of detail in the gate as well as the very subtle textures of the woolen weave jumper based on actual weaves of Angus Mcphee the South Uist outsider artist who was resident in Craig Dunain Psychiatric Hospital outside Inverness for 50 silent years.




CONCEPT ARTWORK FOR CATHEDRAL - each of these panels contains more details which helped inform the stories i imagined behind the characters and their territories - again click for more detail if you want to read them.


The traveller, dressed by church and state in patterns extruded from tiles in the town house and the cathedral, weighs up the choices and questions raised. The grass weave below the wolf skull is also an exact copy of the handiwork of Angus Mcphee. Access to study and photograph his work was kindly given by Joyce Laing, of Art Extraordinary, who discovered the work of Angus in the grounds of Craig Dunain Psychiatric Hospital 1977.



The “DEER CLAN” figures are boys from the merkinch streets and young women from a series of local community groups. They wear their own outfits adapted to integrate the ancient weaves of Angus Mcphee outsider artist and patient at craig dunain, hopefully blending trainer culture with rich traditions from the outer hebrides that stretch back beyond printed history.



The “WOLF CLAN” figures of the wilderness similarly blend ancient pictish and celtic pattern making with contemporary global brand culture as well as patterns also drawn from the cathedral.



The artwork examines both our spiritual similarities as well as our differences, the belief systems followed in many contemporary religious doctrines sit along side the practices of those with alternative spiritual approaches. I am reflecting the similarities and differences using a combination of stylised and natural forms of representation. each style yielding to the others authority as your eye travels across the work, the same yet contrasting, two ways of examining the contradictory fundamental needs that lies within so many of us.


The gate patterns draw on tile designs from both the cathedral and the town house. The tendrils at one end of this section come from stone carvings also found on the outside of the cathedral. A textural representation of church and state.



Between the two collectives, tribes or communities lies the bridge, a territory where organic matter and stylised nature competes for control: or do they harmonise? Organic vines grow constantly, climbing all over the bridge while very formal, heavily designed vines flow from the gramophone counter attacking this landscape.



The outfits worn by these "feral" children are their own, designed spontaneously from scraps of cloth as they became a clan dedicated to protecting the myth of the last wolf in scotland and acted out their parts, surrounding the “den” another gateway or portal to safety, security and perhaps most importantly their imaginations.



absolutely nothings gets approved by highland council's tech services without a very thorough and rigorous series of technical discussions taking place so my former training as a design draughtsman in heavy engineering came in extremely handy in the discussions with the engineer and his staff who were surprised to find that an artist could be technically competent as well as creative.


AND FINALLY ITS COMPLETE



The artwork is intended to raise questions not answer them, to examine the belief systems not judge them and most importantly to blend truth, fiction, imagination and the power of belief to create a new highland myth for the “reluctant city” that Inverness has now become.