In Search of the Blue Flower: Alexander Hamilton and the Art of Cyanotype 9781838382278

Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction
In Search of the Blue Flower
Early years
Edinburgh College of Art
Stroma
Community Arts
New York
Paris
The Photographers’ Gallery
Public Service and Life Science Trust
Public Arts, Exhibitions, Residency
Further Observations on my Career as an Artist
The Art of Cyanotype Essays on the Artist’s Practice
Paradox in Blue
The Cyanotype Process
A Shining Aesthetic
Strategy: Get Arts
Bird Nest Fern
Emblem of a Quest
Glenfinlas
Blue Flora Celtica
Sensorium: Pictures from Nature’s Laboratory
The Trace
The Trace
On the Edge of the World British Council Exhibition
Stromata
Pishwanton
Haar Wood
The Cyanotypes 1971- 2020
Biography
Timeline
Publications/References
Contributors

Citation preview

In Search of the Blue Flower Alexander Hamilton and The Art of Cyanotype

In Search of the Blue Flower

In Search of the Blue Flower Alexander Hamilton and The Art of Cyanotype

Scottish Photographic Artists

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Published in partnership with Edinburgh University Press www.edinburghuniversitypress.com Studies in Photography is the trading name of The Scottish Society for the History of Photography A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registered in Scotland with the Office of the Scottish Charities Registrar SC033988 www.studiesinphotography.com British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-8383822-6-1 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-8383822-7-8 (webready PDF) © 2022 The copyright of the work published in this book rests with the authors.

Scottish Photographic Artists Series The Scottish Photographic Artists series presents Scotland-based artists who have created a substantial body of work that deserves the attention of a wider audience. This series will feature artists with an international profile who are in the later stages of their careers. Introduced by Sara Stevenson, renowned Hill and Adamson scholar and former Curator of Photography at National Galleries Scotland, each artist will present their career and draw on reviews by invited writers in order to present multiple perspectives on their work. A final section will include a dynamic selection of images covering all aspects of their creative practice. Published annually and marketed through our partner Edinburgh University Press, this series further expands

Series Editor Alexander Hamilton

our range of publications.

Associate Editor Eliza Allan

Acknowledgements

Consulting Editor Professor Christian Weikop

As Author and Series Editor for this publication, I would like to thank the following individuals and contributors, who have supported my work.

Design

In particular my editors Christian Weikop and

Ian McIIroy

Eliza Allan, the book designer Ian McIIroy, copy

Copy Editing and Proof Reading Robin Connelly

editor and proof reader Robin Connelly; and the contributors who have been so generous in responding to my requests and writing about my art: Mike Ware,

Printed and Bound

James Berry, Richard Ovenden, Christian Weikop,

Bell & Bain Limited, Glasgow

Vanessa Sellars, Euan McArthur, Julie Lawson,

J Thomson Colour Printers, Glasgow

Gemma Rolls-Bentley, Howard Hull, Jaromir Jedlinski,

The paper used in this publication is recyclable. It is made from low chlorine pulps produced in a low energy, low emission manner from renewable forests.

Piotr Tryjanowski, Christine Gunn, and Sara Stevenson. Every effort has been made to acknowledge photograph copyright. All others are from the artist's archive.

Previous page: Nettle3 2009 Following page: Dahlia 1995

Contents Introduction In Search of the Blue Flower 8

Early years

10

Edinburgh College of Art

17

Stroma

20

Community Arts

24

New York

27

Paris

31

The Photographers’ Gallery

34

Public Service and Life Science Trust

36

Public Arts, Exhibitions, Residency 38 40 42 44 46 48 52 53 54 55

The Great Divide The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2002 Landscape in 22 Movements Perth Concert Hall, 2004 Glenfinlas Edinburgh Arts Festival, 2008 Theory of the Petal Dobre, 2007 Blue Flora Celtica Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, 2008 Sensorium Brantwood House and Lancaster University, 2009 The Trace Muzalewska Gallery, Poznań, 2009 On the Edge of the World – Darwin Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 2010 Stromata (touring exhibition) Scottish Highlands, 2011 Designing for Dignity Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow, 2014 The Life Science Trust, Pishwanton, 2019

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Further Observations on my Career as an Artist

59

The Art of Cyanotype Essays on the Artist’s Practice 60 62 63 66

Paradox in Blue Mike Ware The Cyanotype Process James Berry A Shining Aesthetic Richard Ovenden Strategy: Get Arts Christian Weikop

72 74 80 84 88 90 91 92 94 98 102

Bird Nest Fern Vanessa Sellars Emblem of a Quest Euan McArthur Glenfinlas Julie Lawson Blue Flora Celtica Gemma Rolls-Bentley Sensorium: Pictures from Nature’s Laboratory Howard Hull The Trace Jaromir Jedlinski The Trace Piotr Tryjanowski On the Edge of the World British Council Exhibition, John Hope Gateway Gallery Stromata Christine Gunn Pishwanton Alexander Hamilton Haar Wood Sara Stevenson

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The Cyanotypes 1971- 2020

164

Biography

165

Timeline

166

Publications/References

168

Contributors

Introduction Sara Stevenson

The Blue Flower – a search, personal and artistic,

The connection is intuitive; it offers a window into

echoing the continual quest in Germanic and Celtic

nature and the trace of what was there, its unique

folk tradition for the elusive blue flower – symbol

element, which magically requires only water and

of the endless pursuit of something that lies beyond

the sun to reveal its essence.

our reach.

He focussed from the beginning on plants. The

One of the pleasing ideas in scientific evidence

respect and approach never changed. Each plant,

is that touch leaves a trace, contact effects an

leaf, petal required the same meditative approach

exchange. Touch a wall and you leave fingerprints;

and engagement. The cyanotype is made with

the wall has touched you and minute particles will

fresh water drawn from a close natural source;

transfer, so you become part wall. Such exchanges

the water is mixed with the cyanotype chemicals,

are the basis of interconnectedness in nature,

and a new solution applied to paper. The plant is

and even genetically separated species may be

placed on the paper and revealed to sunlight.

woven together. Alexander Hamilton’s work in

Simply removing the plant and bathing the paper

cyanotype consciously exploits this and is

in water completes the work. He then assesses

distinguished by the physical and visual relationship

if the result reveals what he felt and saw. The

between the object and the print – the process

image is rejected if the plant sap destroys the

is essential to the picture. The plant is laid on the

trace of the plant, the water source reacts badly

paper, which will capture an image of its delicate

to the chemicals, or the image washes out.

complexity; at the same time, sap and colouring

Generally, one image out of fifty will hold the

may leach into the paper and interact with the

trace he is seeking.

chemistry. The erratic sun in Scotland defines the image – a silhouette combining shadow with transparency, drifting round the edges, and even showing us inside the plant. The chemical reaction follows the light, and the atmosphere – dry or damp. This is not simply what we might see of the plant but a response to its nature. Hamilton is influenced by Ruskin, Goethe, and

If asked to choose from his fifty-year artistic journey, he would elect his period of intense engagement with the cyanotype in France. After twenty years, his confidence had grown, but some elements of the trace were missing. In 1991, living in the village of Blenne near Fontainebleau, he found images started to truly speak. With new energy and knowledge, he returned to Scotland

Beuys, all of whose ideas proposed an art in

and made the cyanotypes published in the

communication with the natural world. After

Four Flowers catalogue. His remarkable work

considering the process at Edinburgh College of

led to exhibitions, residencies and public art

Art, he chose cyanotype, a partnership enabling

commissions. Over time, Hamilton’s artistic

him to explore and interpret nature.

mission has been to develop an authentic bond between his cyanotypes and the natural world, creating poetic images in the process.

In Search of the Blue Flower Early Years

Leaving a mark; seeking to leave a trace. My earliest serious attempts at art were to observe an object, and to place it onto a prepared surface and to use chemicals and light to reveal and to leave a mark, a trace of its unique existence. Photography as the artform of the 20th century; in its beginning, the early practitioners used chemical processes to reveal glimpses of the world they saw around them. The early British pioneers John Herschel (1792-1871) and Fox Talbot (1800-1877) called it "photogenic drawing", using writing paper coated in chemicals to allow them to fix and to hold an image. As a young artist this was what fascinated me. I wanted this direct engagement with the object and the surface I was working with. As an artist it was the action of light on the surface of an object that held my fascination, the excitement of revealing an image. Where did this all begin? Nothing in my early childhood seems connected to this awakening. I was born of Scottish parents in Chapel Brampton in England. My early years were spent in a simple hut-like building, surrounded by fields and a vegetable garden, until we moved to the urban environment of Northampton. My strongest memories were of yearning to get back to the countryside, making cycle trips back to my childhood home, until one day it Right: Hut- Chapel Brampton 1950

disappeared, possibly a consequence of the farmer seeking more land to grow his crops. It was the move to the very north of Scotland, to Caithness in 1962, that this sense of an artistic awakening began. At the age of twelve, I suddenly felt I was in my correct skin. I was born at last. My life could begin. The world around me appeared familiar and natural. I loved to feel as though I was held between the land and the sky. Anyone who has experienced the Caithness landscape, known as the Flow Country, will recognise the sense of a sublime feeling, of enormous skies and the endless flat land.

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Above: Achanarras Quarry Caithness Above right: Dunnet Head Caithness

The landscape of Caithness became my source of inspiration, and led me to use my Sixth Year art studies to take long walks along the course of Thurso river, to hunt out plants near Dunnet Head and to spend hours in the disused flagstone quarries at Achanarras, a perfect place to seek out good examples of fossilised fishes. The joy of finding a fossil which had laid undiscovered for thousands, if not millions of years had a profound impact on me. This emotional connection to the past and the feeling of seeing something suspended in time and space was at the core of what I would hope to convey in my own creative practice. I was already certain that this was my path, namely, to enter art college. When I reached my final school year, I applied to various art colleges and was accepted by Edinburgh College of Art (ECA). My arrival in Edinburgh before starting art college involved a few part-time jobs all to pay the rent on a flat at the top of Leith Walk. Through lack of funds, I discovered a new cheap food, a dessert called Angel Delight. The strawberry flavour was the best one and that became my new diet. This continued until through lack of nutrition, and the detrimental health risks of living in a damp flat, I quickly went down with pleurisy. My choice if I was to be ready for art college was to return home to recover and then start again.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Edinburgh College of Art

Having recovered, I was back in Edinburgh at the beginning of October 1968, to meet my new fellow travellers on the journey into the world of art. During my second year at ECA a student sit-in started before Christmas 1969, in which classes were disrupted and parts of buildings occupied. The main push was to shift the very outdated curriculum to embrace more experimental artforms. The challenge was a teaching staff that had predominately been selected from past students, thereby perpetuating what you might call the ‘Edinburgh style’, or more broadly, the style of the Scottish Colourists. The idea that you could mix photography on your canvas with paint was viewed with deep suspicion. Out of this flurry of unrest, some minor concessions were made, but generally ECA settled back into its welltrodden ways. The art of Paris had made some gains within the Scottish establishment, but the world of American art, and especially the international Fluxus, was held firmly at bay. In my second year at ECA, I moved into a flat on Howard Place, opposite the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). With this move, the botanic gardens were to become my second home. At RBGE I became acquainted with the world of plants, the glasshouses, and the staff. I found a library on the site, one which was unexpectedly open to the public. The librarian suggested I investigate the work of Anna Atkins (1799- 1871), a Victorian woman who recorded seaweed via the medium of cyanotype. This was like a window into a world I had been seeking. I stumbled, with her help, into the world of early photographic processes. Up until the moment of discovering the work of Atkins, I understood all photography as camera-based images, but these were created without a camera. They were rather like the fossils I had found, images somehow conveying the spirit of the object they recorded. These small A4 size images with the deepest blue I had ever seen, the seaweed forms, in white against the blue background, brought memories of the Caithness walks of my childhood flooding back. This discovery of the work of Atkins did not immediately push me in a new direction, but the window that had opened made me reflect that it might be a potential pathway. As I came to the end of my second year at ECA in 1970, a vital event was to occur, a total work of art experience, an exhibition known as Strategy: Get Arts (SGA). At the time, I did not fully realise that this event would shape my future engagement with the world of art.

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Right: Strategy: Get Arts Assistants 1970 Alexander Hamilton second right Photo © George Oliver

As a hired group of studio assistants, we assembled outside the College and waited for the SGA exhibition to arrive from Düsseldorf. What arrived were two German trucks filled with an exotic mixture of art works, with the VW Camper of Joseph Beuys being the most dramatic to unpack. Our initial attempts to push it through the front door of the college was met by the firm resistance of Mr Brown, the College Secretary. Confused by the concept of a VW Camper being a work of art, he ordered that we park it outside. All attempts to persuade him of its merits fell on deaf ears. Watching this curious spectacle was Beuys himself. He had encountered, we imagined, similar concerns from his own College authorities in Düsseldorf. Quite unperturbed, he sought out a solution and helped to relocate the VW through a side entrance that led into the Sculpture Department. There it remained to be joined by the sledges to form The Pack, the first of the three works he carried out, including, Arena and Celtic (Kinloch Rannoch) Scottish Symphony. This VW episode gave rise to the positive spirit that led to all our endeavours. Each installation required ingenuity and sometimes nimble solutions to help make it work. It also made me later realise, those formal constraints of an art gallery could be challenged, and the execution of art could happen in a variety of settings. On reflection, my early engagement with community arts projects soon after leaving college was clearly influenced by SGA.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Edinburgh College of Art

A personal favourite was the installation of smashed chairs that cascaded down the staircase. This was a remarkable work by Stefan Wewerka, even more so considering that he arrived with no chairs to carry out the installation. My suggestion of a trip to the Sam Burns Scrapyard at Prestonpans led to a suitable solution. He picked out a group of Bentwood chairs and on our return proceeded to smash them against the steps, encouraging others to join in. The same spirt of spontaneous creativity resulted in a pile of crushed papers that Reiner Ruthenbeck, with our help, shaped into a giant mound, a work that was eagerly sought after by one of the lead dancers from the Netherlands Dance Company, only for the purchase to fall through when the artist refused not to make any more examples. As a student, observing how some collectors required certain conditions to be met before a purchase might be successful was an insightful guide to the functioning of the art market. Our student group quickly became close to many of the younger artists. Another favourite was Blinky Palermo. His joyous installation – Blue/Yellow/White/Red – a painted frieze above the ECA entrance stairs saw him precariously balancing on a tall ladder. This work was so simple, but so effective. It was one of the first casualties of a negative ECA reaction after the event. The college painters were instructed to paint it out. Attempts much later in 2005 to restore the work, came at a price as the original paint could not be saved and the decision was taken to repaint in the same Palermo colours. This decision poses even more questions about the reaction of ECA at the time. Following the installation of the works, we were hired to act as guards and guides. Before the exhibition was opened to public, a committee of city councillors was required to approve the exhibition as suitable for public engagement. The artists, conscious of Edinburgh’s conservative reputation, had expected Dorothy Iannone’s explicit work to be banned. A similar situation had occurred when her work was exhibited in Switzerland the previous year. A suitable protest was planned. What was not expected was that the councillors would ignore the pornographic drawings, and instead turn their attention to the water installation by Klaus Rinke, an exhibit which included a jet of water that was projected out of the front doors of the college. This waste of water was too much. In addition, further inspections by the police led to the fencing off of Günther Uecker’s infamous corridor of knives. The opening of Strategy: Get Arts only happened once all of this was resolved. An early group to attend were the younger painting tutors, keen to see what had happened to their college. Shock turned into anger and Wewerka’s chairs were quickly assaulted and thrown down the stairs.

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All attempts to calm matters and discuss the work were futile and the tutors left in disgust. We were delighted with all this. The whole affair was close in spirit to a college revel, where on an annual basis the students would take over ECA during the Christmas break and create as much havoc as possible. A sense of being part of history might not have occurred to some of us. To the majority of helpers it was all rather strange, especially watching Beuys perform his Scottish Symphony. He had a mesmerising presence which led everyone to be respectful and rather in awe. The Head of the Painting School, Robin Philipson was particularly taken. He saw something which his younger colleagues missed. I think for a while he tried to engage with this new world of Fluxus art, until his staff pushed back, and the conservative world of Edinburgh College of Art returned. It would also have been the disastrous fire that nearly saw the college burn down that provoked a backlash. A room aptly named Homage to Turner, by Gotthard Graubner, required the setting up of a smoke machine. On one particular day, I started the smoke machine, only for it to burst into flames. As the room was windowless and lined with foam it quickly became a burning inferno. Getting everyone out and then closing the door was the priority. The fire brigade was summoned. Fortunately, their building was next door. Heavily equipped firemen brought the near tragic blaze under control. This spectacle was carefully watched by the artists, especially Beuys, who left his performance to observe in silence the efforts of the fire crew. The end of the SGA exhibition saw a return of a truck, the artworks dismantled. The college returned to its former self, but for all of us something had changed. We had witnessed a unique event in art history, sharing time and creating relationships with some of those who would become giants of modern art – Beuys, Uecker, Palermo, Richter. My world had shifted. I was determined to take on the spirit of SGA and find a way to deliver my new understanding of art. I also realised through the timing of SGA that very few fellow ECA students had actually experienced it and therefore had no connection with it. This was an incredible missed opportunity for the art school, although no one knew at that moment that SGA was going to one of the most influential events in the history of contemporary art in the UK. Going into my third year in September 1970, I started the drawing and painting programme. After SGA, lots of issues had to be resolved. During the summer break I passed my driving test, and this offered me the opportunity to seek a place to live where ideas connected to being close to nature could be developed. I was eager to share my new country space and my ideas on the natural world with the teaching staff of the ECA Drawing and Painting School, especially as commuting by car in a rather unreliable NSU Prinz made me occasionally miss certain classes. The spring and early summer period resulted in an abundance of work. I created my own mini hydro installation, observing the growth of selected plants. A favourite was the rhubarb plant. There were also opportunities to stage events and happenings on a regular basis in the grand Sculpture Court of ECA, all studiously ignored by the staff. 13

In Search of the Blue Flower Edinburgh College of Art

The college broke up and a glorious summer in Nine Mile Burn beckoned. Time to take stock and begin the process of recording what I had observed. My thoughts were taken back to the work of Anna Atkins. For me, the seminal question was how to allow a plant to be an equal partner in an artistic relationship, so as not to dominate or overinterpret nature. Atkins had allowed the seaweed to be the most important part of the story, to be recorded onto paper. She did not consider the resulting images to be art; for her, the process of recording was a scientific quest. I found this idea, this journey, very compelling. Seeing her work was a trigger, observing that images that were not even considered to be art were still incredibly beautiful. I renewed my acquaintance with the RBGE and began to research more into the camera-less process of creating Right: Remains of plant and water installation (1971) Nine Mile Burn 2014

cyanotypes. At the same time, I was directly creating plant installations and working directly with the environment. A new preoccupation was the ivy plant. I entered my fourth and final year at ECA in September 1971, preparing for my diploma show. The resistance from the College tutors when I brought in plants and sketches of my work in the Pentlands, was increasing. They were becoming very frustrated with the lack of paint on canvases. Conversations around my ideas and the direct use of plant materials were becoming rather fraught. I attempted to encourage the staff to see for themselves my location at Nine Mile Burn, but all attempts to invite them, were rejected. My tutors made it clear that as I was undertaking a painting course, they simply expected to see paintings.

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An installation that I created for the grand space of the ECA Sculpture Court was called Pink Mountain, and again this did not endear me to the teaching faculty. I had used the summer to fill the space with every spare table I could find in the college, covering the assembled structure with chicken wire, and then pasting on paper. The resulting structure, which took up most of the space, was then painted pink. Consciously or subconsciously I was perhaps still connecting to my diet of strawberry-flavoured Bird’s Angel Delight, which had had such a profound physical and psychological impact on me. The installation was taking over the space the tutors had reserved to show the best work carried out by other students. As they were unable to move it, they decided the best thing was to pretend it was not there and proceeded to hang paintings from it. Once again Robin Philipson showed interest and offered positive support. At least I had finally used paint! Preparations got underway for the final-year diploma show. Usually, a student would spend the final term on such preparations and then have a week to install. I had persuaded the canteen staff to make available a large fridge so I could create a jelly in a college dustbin. The final week saw me covering the walls in ivy, with my pièce de resistance involving the careful upturning of my frozen jelly, which dispersed as a wobbly mass across the studio floor. I thought it looked magnificent and completely encapsulated what I wanted to say. What followed was dramatic. College staff went from trying to pull it apart to physically grabbing me, which required the intervention of other staff to prevent serious injury from taking place. In a way, this was a continuation of the aggression expressed by some tutors during the Strategy: Get Arts ‘takeover’, which had such an energising impact on me. Naturally I was told I had failed. Four years and nothing in the way of a qualification to show for it. Personally, I did not even consider the consequences of my actions. My aim was to be faithful to my artistic ideals and to put together an exhibition that I was completely committed to. What the future held, did not even enter my head. Events turned out more favourably when the college was required to show my work to an external examiner for a final decision. His reaction was much more positive, and prevailed in persuading the Head of School that I should pass, much to the annoyance of the younger ECA tutors. As a final act of defiance on my part, I did not attend my graduation ceremony and requested they post my qualification out to the caravan I was living in. What did I care, I was going to become an artist!

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In Search of the Blue Flower Edinburgh College of Art

The following month I took the remains of my diploma show down to London. The trip, by hitchhiking, involved wrapping the ivy leaf rope around my waist. I went directly to the Tate where Joseph Beuys was holding his first exhibition in the UK since the groundbreaking Strategy: Get Arts (SGA). I proceeded to unwrap the ivy and placed it directly into the installation space as a gesture of my memory of his engagement with SGA at Edinburgh College of Art. On leaving, a guard suggested I should follow him to the Director’s Office. The Director at that time was Sir Norman Robert Reid, who had studied at ECA under William Gillies. After explaining my purpose, he attempted to call Joseph Beuys. Finally, we agreed that I could donate the work to the Tate collection. Professor Beuys would, at some point, be fully informed and a final decision made on its location within the gallery. Satisfied, I left and headed directly back to Scotland, the final chapter of my ECA diploma show completed. My experience at ECA resulted in a strong affirmation that the path I was on was justified, that it did not connect with the ‘Edinburgh School’ and their perception of ‘Scottish Art’. For these reasons, I decided that a return to the landscape of Caithness would help to expand my practice, with the possibility of unlocking all those emotions and ideas that I was unable to resolve as I entered the quarries, or crept underground into chambered cairns, as a teenager. Using the ideas and techniques that I had gained from four years of art training, I decided to go to a remote and hopefully uninhabited island. The choice of Stroma, an island off the coast of Caithness, only came about after another summer at the caravan, where I completed some projects and put into place a return trip to Caithness. On this trip, I met with the farmer who owned the island and sought his permission to live there. What was important to me, was the aspiration to follow in the path of other artists and explorers, who sought an understanding through their creativity and adventure, of a deeper connection with nature. It took a year of planning to live on Stroma, to be completely immersed in a landscape and build a substantial new body of work. As I prepared to go to Stroma, I realised that cyanotypes would be the perfect medium to develop on the island. I didn’t want to record through drawing, painting, or photography; I wanted to build a connection to plants, to engage very directly with the landscape. I wanted to allow the plants to speak by placing specimens on surfaces to produce images. The exploration of the cyanotype medium had truly begun.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Stroma

Stroma is an island off John o’ Groats in the Pentland Firth, which had a population in 1901 of 375 people, which was then depleted after two World Wars, and the desire by some to seek a life elsewhere. By the 1950s, there were only 50 or 60 people living on the island. In 1961 it was home to only one family, the Masons, who eventually left in 1962. The island was abandoned to nature like other Scottish island communities, such as Eilean nan Ròn and St. Kilda. A local farmer, Jimmy Simpson, whose family had lived on Stroma bought it, and I turned to him to negotiate a stay on the island. Prior to leaving, I met with the herbarium staff at the Botanic Garden and offered to do a survey of the plants on Stroma. The staff provided me with basic instructions and equipment. We arrived on the island with basic provisions such as flour and rice but relied on the island resources to be self-sufficient. I had, however, completely underestimated the demands of living on an island. While the air was fresh, the conditions were harsh. Obtaining food, firewood, and adequate fresh water were essential and taxing daily tasks. The practice of making cyanotypes was also a part of the rhythm of these days. I gathered material, placed plants on the paper, took them out into the sunlight and exposed them. The length of the stay on the island enabled me to witness a full cycle of the birds arriving, the nesting season, and seasonal changes to the landscape. We divided a map of Stroma into quadrants and explored the areas systematically, documenting plants and mosses. The island was small and flat, but it was extraordinarily varied and visually stunning. The plants on the island would vary from vast areas of blue flowers, with other patches showing swathes of red flowers. An important experience was when Jimmy Simpson told me that there was to be a reunion for the former islanders. I was instructed to build a big bonfire, and the ex-islanders came across by boat. Having been on the island for three months at this point, I was quite acclimatised. For the former islanders, seeing us living on the island was very emotional. Some expressed regret over having left the island and its unique way of life. The islanders lived by fishing and crofting, working with the natural elements of land and sea. Stroma was in the flow of powerful tides, giving the island its name and the constantly changing skies. This often gave rise to extraordinary natural events such as the sea ‘boiling’ with fish, a phenomenon caused by the shoals of sand eels being caught in strong currents and swept ashore, followed by shoals of hungry fish.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Stroma

Above: Card for Stroma expedition 1973 Design: Don Fitzpatrick Above right: Island of Stroma Pentland Firth Caithness Opposite: Map of Stroma divided for plant survey 1973

Catching the fish only required a line and hook to haul ashore an abundance of cod. I harvested mussels and whelks from the seashore and planted a vegetable patch. Rabbits often delighted in eating the salad leaves, so I would eat the rabbits instead. The weather could quickly change, creating swarths of rolling dense sea fogs that would consume the island, only to then roll back revealing a landscape bathed in bright sunshine. This powerful mix of sea and sky encouraged me to find a way of creating unique cyanotypes. After six months on Stroma, the time had come to leave. The weather from October onwards would become very unpredictable. The farmer was highly reluctant to let me stay there over a winter as the possibility of being rescued from the island became more problematic. It was also good timing as six months on the island had provided the scope to lay down my future pathway with regards creative work. It also raised issues regarding how I expected to support myself. Living on an island was inexpensive if you had a good harvest of fish and gulls eggs and the chance of catching rabbits. The winter would not be so easy. Laying down a winter supply of dried cod, would involve much more ambitious fishing, not something available to me.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Community Arts

The artistic career path I would follow was beginning to be shaped by my ECA experience and Stroma. I did not see a clear route into exhibiting with galleries. The process of making art and my distrust of institutions would ultimately lead me towards a socially-engaged form of work. I needed time back in Edinburgh to consider these ideas and to reflect on the work I had produced on the island. In 1973, on arrival back in the city, my first contact was to bring some of my art to Graeme Murray. I had got to know Graeme when he was involved in the Ceramic Workshops, Edinburgh, a leading contemporary project in the city. Lack of support from the Scottish Arts Council led to its closure with Graeme then setting up his own gallery. Graeme was trying to promote important minimalist artists such as Sol Le Witt and went on to become one of the directors of the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. He also worked closely with Ian Hamilton Finlay and ultimately left the art gallery world to pursue a career in woodworking. I brought my body of cyanotypes and showed them to him. A month after giving him the artworks, I realised he could not exhibit them. I could not get into my head how one could divorce the experience of making a cyanotype from its display; exhibiting in a space that had no connection with that creative experience. Anyone visiting the gallery would have no idea how the work was created; what I went through living on that island for six months: the landscape, the conditions, the complexity. Collectors would be buying the end process, but not buying into understanding the process. Graeme understood the predicament and returned the Stroma pieces. I had to consider my next steps if galleries were not to be the appropriate venues for my work. My fraught relationship with ECA had closed down any chance of gaining travelling scholarships or being offered a postgraduate year and the route onwards to the Royal College of Art. Without any financial support or travelling scholarships, I needed to find another pathway which would enble me to sustain my practice and make a living. In 1974 I joined a one-year community education programme, run by the School of Community Studies. It took on only twelve students and used Gestalt techniques to challenge one’s preconceptions around communities, people, and empowerment. Group sessions were sometimes painful and tested all the participants. Some left, but the remainder were given an excellent introduction into the world of working in poor and disadvantaged areas. The emergence of this career direction, to explore a socially-engaged art practice, was clearly influenced by Beuys who was a teacher and an artist whose art lessons I experienced directly at ECA in 1970.

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I began working in 1975 with Inter-Action in London, one of the first community arts-based organisations in the UK. Inter-Action employed artists in communities, exploring ways in which art, theatre, and media could promote social ideas, help with housing, and engage with people on the poverty line. Through these experiences, I recognised that I was much more interested in the concept, the process, and the human side of art, rather than creating a physical product for sale. I felt that there were very few UK galleries where visitors could experience the full story behind the creative act, incorporating the process or experience. This community arts journey was to happen in parallel with my own practice throughout the 1970s and 1980s. As much as InterAction was special, I missed the Scottish landscape, the access to the countryside and the desire to maintain my working relationship with nature. When I returned to Scotland in 1975 the first appropriate job was to set up a community arts centre in East Lothian. There was very little for youth in the area to do, so the task was to create an art centre in an old school building. I had tried out some ideas gained from my experiences

Right: Community Arts screen printing workshop East Lothian 1976

with the Salisbury Centre in Edinburgh. During their residential programmes, I ran combined dance and drawing workshops. My engagement came about through my postgraduate course in community work. One of the course tutors encouraged me to take part in an Easter school run by the Salisbury Centre, called Sempervivum.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Community Arts

Right: Community Arts – Medieval Players workshop – Edinburgh 1977

The next appointment was as a Play Adviser for Lothian Region, to support in whatever way that was appropriate the child’s right to play. So began a wonderful time working with the most warm-spirited people I had ever met. We set up adventure playgrounds, and converted vehicles into playbuses. There were questions about what it meant ‘to play’ and what local authorities needed to do to ensure children’s needs were met. I hired theatre companies, including Bread and Puppet, Medieval Players, and Welfare State, as well as local musicians, to create new productions to offer events and shows to hundreds of children during the summer holidays. I engaged a film workshop and young photographers, to document the conditions and help with campaigns over poor housing and the lack of social facilities.

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A trip to New York in 1979 coincided with my further engagement with the work of Joseph Beuys. The only retrospective of his work was being held at the Guggenheim Museum. It offered a wonderful opportunity to gain a deeper insight into his work. I purchased a catalogue and spent most of my stay walking around the museum, immersed in the work. It was extraordinary that just nine years earlier, I had supported Beuys with his installations at Strategy: Get Arts in my art college, and now I was witnessing a major retrospective at the prestigious Guggenheim, the first for a living German artist. The well-illustrated catalogue edited by Caroline Tisdall also captured the significance of Strategy: Get Arts. Back in Scotland, a new role of Arts Officer emerged that gave me the opportunity to lead on community engagement. This included everything from working with mining communities and brass bands, to touring theatre companies around residential care homes. A particularly memorable project was Rock at the Queen’s Hall, involving local rock bands, fashion designers, and hair and make-up artists, taking over a classical music venue in the centre of Edinburgh. However, the central focus was to create a community arts policy for the City of Edinburgh. My artistic practice was evolving, but I was getting great satisfaction from my focus on social engagement programmes. I was following a Beuysian model of ‘social sculpture’ and ‘ecological art’, which allowed me to carry out my art practice within an urban city context, as well as pursue my love of landscape and nature through a Goethean model of quiet contemplation through making cyanotypes. By the 1980s, the pace and intensity of the work was increasing. I had worked on urban renewal projects for new facilities in Edinburgh’s most underprivileged areas. I had worked with young people, watching their paths evolve as they engaged in these creative opportunities. Then suddenly, it began to feel too all-consuming, as I was losing the balance between my socially-engaged practice and work with nature. Frequent trips back to Caithness and engagement with the landscape around Edinburgh offered opportunities to make work. I felt no requirement or desire to show or exhibit this work, rather just to build up my engagement with nature and create more ephemeral pieces that were sited in various private locations. The desire to go beyond this and to make more cyanotypes was now getting stronger, and a desire to return to a studio-based practice was remerging.

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In Search of the Blue Flower New York

Right: Brooklyn Bridge New York 1989

I arrived in New York in the Autumn of 1988, to join my wife, Graz´yna, who had taken up an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We found an apartment in Sunnyside, Queens, that offered space for a studio. It was time for me to get back into making cyanotypes. I wanted to revisit what had happened on Stroma, to unravel that experience, even whilst living in the middle of Queens, New York. A productive six months of experimentation followed. The results were exhibited in a friend’s loft apartment at 110 West 26th street, Manhattan. Friends and visitors enjoyed the work and I managed to sell more than 90% of the exhibition. I was especially excited about the large fern images which had involved mixing cyanotype with layers of colour, applied using gum arabic.

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The mental block I had about exhibiting my artworks had lifted and I started to prepare work for the Jan Weiss gallery in New York and also an exhibition at the New York Botanic Garden. Leaving New York was difficult. We had made friends and the city was an exciting place for artists. Two years had provided time to create a supportive network. Our daughter Marcelina was born. At that time, New York was also still an affordable place to live with a dynamic and creative art scene. The compensation was that we were heading for Paris where Grazyna could conclude her Princeton University research. The libraries of France beckoned.

Left: 110 West 26th Street New York 1990

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In Search of the Blue Flower Paris

Opposite: Studio Ivry-Sur-Seine Paris 1991

In Paris, we settled in Ivry-sur-Seine in September 1990, an artist community located in a series of factories converted into studios and accommodation. The studio space was lightfilled and I was able to start very quickly in making new work. Paris was a supportive centre for photography. Numerous galleries were interested in photographic work. My experiments with the cyanotype process attracted the attention of Galerie Antoine Candau, which resulted in a commission to produce an edition of cyanotypes of irises for the French national electricity/gas company. This was my first foray into the world of print editioning. The iris cyanotypes were held at the gallery and they put them forward to the company. The managing director decided to select one and commissioned from it a limited edition of 100 prints for all their key clients in France. The gallery managed the arrangements and the final lithographs were then signed off. I also started to prepare some cyanotype installations in my studio. To gain wider recognition as an artist now working in France, I applied to join Maison des Artistes. This organisation is critical if you wish to work and live as an artist in France. I had to prepare a detailed list of my work, exhibitions, and the support of two other artists. A panel made the decision and I was accepted. After Paris we moved to Blennes in 1991, a delightful small village near Fontainebleau, with our cottage located close to a stream. It had good dry rooms, a kitchen, and very importantly a large outbuilding perfect as a studio. We stayed six months, which was enough time to select local plants and to keep perfecting the process of making cyanotype images. I was aware that one crucial element was missing. The images I had previously created were usually slightly out of focus. I was seeking to achieve more detail and carry micro elements of the plant over into the finished image. My method of creating a cyanotype, which was different from other artists, including Anna Atkins, was to not treat the image as a negative and make multiple images. I was seeking to extract one image from each plant, thereby gaining the unique trace of what was before me. This approach of using fresh plants is not best suited to the cyanotype method as to fix or make permanent a cyanotype requires washing fully in water. A fresh plant releases water under the rays of the sun. The moisture from the plant begins to fix and stain the surface of the paper. To overcome this problem was the challenge I needed to meet.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Paris

Right: Preparation of plants and the making of cyanotypes

My method of making a cyanotype has always remained the same. Using local water to mix chemicals, and always a fresh solution for each day’s work. Preparing the papers, again always on the day I needed them, to overcome the issue of moisture, I had to find better ways of adjusting the pressure on the plant. Too much and the moisture from the plant would seep into the paper compromising the image. Not enough pressure and the detail was lost. This constant judgement about how much and how long for exposure was a challenging ritual. The plant had to be fresh, selected, and prepared quite quickly because I wanted the transference of energy from the plant. This was critical to my artistic process. I will confess that success rates of working this way were often very low. An image could just spoil through too much moisture, or wash out in the final fixing. I accepted all of this with good grace because when it worked I felt a harmony and partnership with the plant.

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It was in Blennes that I began what became the direction of my work over the next twenty years. The village had an abundance of suitable flowers. Poppies in the fields, irises growing beside pathways, and of course roses. Each day was spent creating work, but also reflecting on nature and the setting around us. However, we were coming out of summer and decisions had to be made about returning to Scotland. I started to prepare for this and began to focus on a major new project. The Peace Rose.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Paris

The story of the Peace Rose intrigued me. This is a hybrid tea rose. It was developed by the French rose breeder, Francis Meilland, between 1935 and 1939, who, when he saw that war with Germany was inevitable, sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the USA. In the USA, the rose breeders, The Conrad Pyle Company, successfully grew it, thereby securing its future. In Italy it was called 'Goia' (Joy). The Germans named it 'Gloria Dei' (Glory to God) and the Americans called it 'Peace'. It was the name 'Peace' which stuck when hostilities ended. The official name was announced on the day that Berlin fell, which led to the end of war in Europe. In the same year of 1945, each member of the United Nations (meeting for its inaugural session in San Francisco) was given a Peace Rose and a note which read: "We hope the 'Peace' Rose will influence men's thoughts for everlasting world peace". I started the Peace Rose project in 1991. I selected roses that made up the family tree of the Peace Rose as established by Meilland. The story behind the artwork is an exploration of male control (rose breeders are generally male) and plant manipulation, the search for perfection. But plant perfection is all about imperfection, the beauty of the wild rose. To achieve all-year-round blooms requires the use of modern systems for plant cultivation and, with it, the terrible consequences of pesticides on health. What fascinated me was the idea of searching, as rose breeders do, for new and perfect roses, as it is hard to compete with the wonderful wild beauty of the common dog rose. As I examined the Peace Rose family tree, it promoted the idea of working with each of the roses that made up the story of its creation. I was looking at plants in a systematic way, examining how they were affected by things like breeding and cultivation, and what ‘perfection’ means in plants. I would continue this work back in Scotland. Right: Citroen Van Blenne France 1991

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In September 1991 our possessions were loaded into our Citroen van, for the return journey to Scotland.

In Search of the Blue Flower The Photographers’ Gallery

We returned to Scotland in 1991, and I found the energy to work with various galleries. I took over part of a studio in Edinburgh and created a suitable space to complete some new cyanotypes. There was also a discernible shift in my attitude from earlier in my career. I still wanted to show the processes involved, but I was also now comfortable seeing my work as a finished piece that others could enjoy. I felt that each was unique, since the spirit of the plant was embedded in the work. The work was respectful of nature and conveyed my relationship with it. The Photographers’ Gallery in London saw and responded positively to my new work and gave me my first UK exhibition, curated by Peter Ride in 1992. I felt comfortable in this supportive, publicly-funded environment. The relationship with The Photographers’ Gallery was to continue for several years. In 1991 we moved to a house in the Scottish Borders that offered me the opportunity of creating a space as a working studio. The garden offered various possibilities and my engagement with making cyanotypes was escalating. The head of the print room at The Photographers’ Gallery was putting effort into promoting my work. Exhibitions were arranged, including in Bradford and Cambridge. Work was taken to photo fairs, notably in Houston, Texas. Right: Traquair Mill House Scottish Borders 1992

The cyanotypes that I had slowly perfected first in France and now back in Scotland were fulfilling what I was seeking, with clear details revealed and the essence of the plant embedded within the fabric of the paper. The Peace Rose project was completed. I travelled up and down to London bringing new examples of my work. Then the staff that I knew decided to leave the Photographers’ Gallery and I was subseqeuntly looked after by someone who did not share the same enthusiasm for camera-less work.

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An opportunity was set up to move my work to a commercial London gallery. Interviews and discussions were held, but it was clear that the market environment being pursued by the gallery did not suit my approach. I had hit another painful crossroads where you either accept Right: Photographers’ Gallery Print Room Manager Peter Ride 1992

the approach of the gallery owner or accept that you need to find options to show your work elsewhere. ‘Elsewhere’ might not be as financially profitable, but at least it did not involve compromising my artistic integrity by pretending to go along with some overly commercial approach. The Berlin story of producing work to demand was going to be repeated, I feared. In 1984, I had spent time with an artist in Berlin. He had been offered a generous scholarship with studio and accommodation. The gallery that he was attached to, sent over some very large blank canvases, with instructions to fill them by a certain date. On arrival at the studio the owner of the gallery was furious they were not completed and again demanded the work be done in great haste as the exhibition tour was already booked. I wanted to avoid this kind of negative artist-dealer situation. Instead, I went to Fotofeis, the award-winning international biennale of photo-based art in Scotland (1991–1997), founded by Alasdair Foster and his team Jackie Shearer and Ken Gill. My return to Scotland was at a time when the Scottish Arts Council was very supportive of photography. A gallery and photo magazine called Portfolio was rapidly becoming a major force in the promotion of photography within the UK. Equally the team behind Fotofeis were determined to show and bring the best photography from around Europe and USA to Scotland. Their idea was to stage exhibitions across Scotland, as well as to run lectures and events and publish high quality catalogues. They also decided to take part in other festivals and promote touring exhibitions of the best photographic work. My first experience of Fotofeis took place in 1993, during which I exhibited Peace Rose work within a National Trust Exhibition space in Falkland Palace & Garden. At the second Fotofeis in 1995 a touring exhibition with a catalogue went all over Europe. The second Fotofeis was highly successful, building on a now established format. I organised a digital presentation of work that was shown simultaneously in Manchester and Edinburgh, supported by the British Council. Then a new Director of the Visual Arts at SAC decided that this was not her preferred strategic direction and started the process of withdrawing funds, thereby ultimately collapsing the Fotofeis organisation in 1997. Foster, the director, decided to take his energy and talent to Australia to head up the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney. The other staff members left and a campaign to reduce funding to Portfolio followed.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Public Service and Life Science Trust

Saddened by the reduction in public support for photography, I made a decision to try and help by joining first the committee of the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh as Chair, and then, when asked, I took over as Chair of Stills Gallery, one of the remaining important spaces to show photography in Scotland. Stills had secured SAC support through the National Lottery for major capital investment in a building, but overruns on costs had left it very vulnerable. With it’s potential closure, I offered to step in with the aim of stabilising the finances and rebuilding the team. By this stage, I had also re-engaged with Edinburgh City Council and had accepted a role in the Planning Department, working on urban regeneration. I now felt more confident I could balance the social engagement practice and my nature based work. My connections to the Salisbury Centre were not as strong as before but a new friendship started when meeting with Dr Margaret Colquhoun in 1995. Margaret had established The Life Science Centre with her commitment to pursuing, as a scientist, the pioneering work of the German poet and naturalist J.W. Goethe (1749-1832). She was seeking to explore ideas concerning ‘Environmental Therapy’ and sought a woodland site for environmental education, research, and holistic practice. I was immediately struck by how close it was to my own practice. My approach of quietly engaging with the world of plants to examine them by using all one’s senses, was so similar to the Goethean model of Sense Perception. A key guide for me was Goethe’s book The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790). Goethe analysed the way that the outer details of the flower always relate in form and structure to the beginning of the plant. He pointed out that in a plant with a triangular striation in the stem, variation of the number three recurred in all that follows. He stated: ‘Everything is leaf…none resembled another, yet all their forms have a likeness: therefore, a mystical law is by the chorus proclaimed.’ My 1972 diploma show installation had been an early attempt to explore this concept of the unity but also diversity of all leaves.

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Right: Pishwanton Meeting Hall and Life Science Centre 2018

Margaret achieved her goal in 1996 when the Trust was able to purchase Pishwanton Wood consisting of 60 acres of varied plant and animal habitats. It is situated in the foot of the Lammermuir Hills in South-East Scotland. I visited Margaret on many occasions as she slowly developed this woodland area, successfully creating in the UK the only Goethean Science facility. Margaret died in 2017 and I was able to finally fulfil a residency in 2019 to complete a cycle of cyanotypes in her memory. In 1997, an opportunity to take over a small one-bedroom flat in William Street, Edinburgh offered a useful arrangement. If I was working very late, rather than driving back to the Borders I could just stay in Edinburgh. It was also to prove useful as I began to develop my public art practice. At the end of the 1990s, we welcomed our second daughter, Larisa.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Public Arts

My cyanotypes had been bought by Scotland’s first public art agency, Art in Partnership, to be installed in the new Scottish Government building in Leith. This was the start of my engagement with Public Arts. Through them I was shortlisted for a number of commissions, but it was the interest from Dundee Public Arts in 1999 that led to a major commission for the new Science Centre located besides Dundee Contemporary Art Centre. The commission to create a sculpture and funding from the Scottish Arts Council and Tayside Enterprise led to my decision to leave my Planning Department post, so in 2000, I was free to concentrate on public art projects, maintaining my exhibition programme and the creation of new cyanotype work. The Dundee Seed Chamber sculpture was completed in 2000 and was quickly followed by a further commission which enabled me to return to Caithness and create a glass wall for the Dunbeath Heritage Centre. I had managed to use the imagery from cyanotype studies and adapt such imagery for both commissions. The Seed Chamber, a nine-metre high glass prism, was inspired by a plant, the Rosebay Willow Herb, which grows in abundance throughout the UK, with some fine examples close to my studio. In the autumn, great seed clouds would disperse and drift slowly across the fields. For the Dunbeath commission in Caithness, the plants of the Flow Country came back into my research and I spent a few months exploring the Strath at Dunbeath. For both commissions, I found specialist fabricators who understood what I wanted, and I was ultimately able to use a digital film printing process, using the cyanotype studies, that could be adhered to the glass walls. Left: Traquair Mill Studio with Rosebay Willow Herb 1999 Opposite: Seed Chamber nine-metre-high glass prism Dundee 2000

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In Search of the Blue Flower Exhibitions

The Great Divide The Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh, 2002 In 2002, the Director of the Fruitmarket Gallery, Graeme Murray, aware of my work from the Stroma period, commissioned me to exhibit work based on another idea that I found compelling, namely how plants are very effective indicators of airborne pollution. The exhibition, The Great Divide, which brought together a group of artists, craft-makers, and filmmakers whose work was concerned with environmental issues, allowed me to work closely with the Department of Geology of Edinburgh University. I selected petals from flowers in Princes Street Gardens and through electronic magnification you could see the diesel particulars laying on the petals. The idea that I sought to convey was that an individual often enjoys flowers in a public garden quite unaware of the hidden dangers lying unseen. It was these particles that led to the World Health Organisation raising the alarm over the effects of diesel pollution on the health of humans. This led to a collaboration with a European Science Network, ‘Eurobionet’, which was based in Stuttgart. A greater awareness of the effects of vehicle pollution has led many cities to try and reduce traffic and create more pedestrian only areas. Right: Fruitmarket Gallery Great Divide Exhibition 2002

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Above: Rose Petal with pollution particles Princes Street Garden Edinburgh 2002

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In Search of the Blue Flower Exhibitions

Landscape in 22 Movements Perth Concert Hall, 2005 I had expanded my range of commissions, and to meet the demands of Public Art Projects, I took on a creative partner, Richard Ashrowan, and support staff. I had received a commission in 2004 to work on a new Concert Hall in Perth in, a 2-year project to complete a program of interactive digital works for the new building, including a film A Landscape Symphony in 22 Movements that would open the new 22 screen installation called Threshold. A by-product of the Perth Concert Hall project was a renewal of my deep interest in John Ruskin and his influence on artists seeking ‘Truth through Nature’.

Above: Threshold Art Space with Hamilton & Ashrowan film installation 2005

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In Search of the Blue Flower Exhibitions

Glenfinlas Edinburgh Arts Festival, 2008 I was now interested in seeing whether or not the stories about the Glenfinlas site were correct. Glenfinlas Burn is situated in a gorge a short way beneath the Glenfinlas dam, near Brig o' Turk in the Trossachs. It is a rich landscape, with complex movements of water and a striking variety of rock formations, plants, and trees. It is here that the critic Ruskin, and Millais, the celebrated founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, spent several months in 1853, with Ruskin sketching and preparing the influential Edinburgh lecture he would deliver in November, and Millais working on a portrait of his friend. The artist executed the painting, under the sitter's direction, with acute attention to detail; in so doing Millais presented both an exact rendering of a specific place and a 'manifesto' - the conceptual landscape of Ruskin's doctrine of nature. When a visitor enters the physical setting of the Ruskin portrait, he or she is immediately struck by the 'enclosing' quality of the landscape which makes for a shaded, even gloomy, location. The senses are initially overwhelmed by the sound of rushing water. Opposite top: Location of Millais Portrait of John Ruskin Glenfinlas 2008

Only after clambering up to the spot where Ruskin posed, does a feeling of stillness emerge:

Opposite bottom: Curator Keith Hartley of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art visiting site 2009

day, in this hidden location, where dampness and a lack of wind create the perfect conditions

the explorer gazes downstream on to a tranquil pool, bounded by rocks. Within a few minutes, however, the air fills with hordes of midges, assaulting the intruder's face and hair. How Ruskin and Millais dealt with this monstrous horde beggars belief. To stand day after for the Scottish midge must have been an act of considerable self-discipline. To add to the joy, this part of Scotland enjoys high rainfall, and the summer of 1853 was no exception. In selecting this difficult and complex site, Ruskin was truly seeking to demonstrate to Millais some very important ideas on looking, and being immersed in, a particular type of Scottish landscape. This is the famous 'Scott Country' and his Romantic writings duly drew Victorians in their hundreds, among them the young Ruskin and his parents. I was introduced to Ruskin at art college, although by this stage his ideas had been pushed out of the teaching programme.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Exhibitions

Somehow, however, a fleeting slide image in an art appreciation class of the English critic poised on a lump of Scottish rock left an impression on me. As my engagement with Ruskin continued to develop, I came across a revelatory essay by the art historian Alastair Grieve. Evidently dissatisfied with the local version of events, and shrugging off the midges, he finally tracked down the historic site. Included with his essay were several black-and-white photographs, revealing a site remarkably untouched and uncannily true to Millais' painting. It was from this source that I also rediscovered where Ruskin had stood. Exploring the site where Ruskin had placed himself in 1853, seeing the plants that he would have seen, gave me an emotional connection to this extraordinary figure, one of the most important in the history of art. In 2008, I made a series of cyanotypes, The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes, to take part in the Edinburgh Art Festival. This work also firmly brought back into my life some colleagues who had been highly supportive of my early work. It reconnected me to the National Galleries Scotland (NGS) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). Through NGS, I had at various times met with staff to discuss my work, but also to offer support to The Scottish Society for the History of Photography (SSHoP). For the RBGE, there was an opportunity to open up a discussion about a further interest that I was pursuing, specifically the effect of climate change on plants. The RBGE work on phenology was well known and I was keen to become part of it. Both NGS and RBGE offered to provide essays to the Glenfinlas catalogue. Theory of the Petal Dobre. 2007 At the invitation of Katy Bentall, in 2007 I undertook a short residency in Poland at the village of Dobre, which was close to the town of Kazimierz Dolny and near the Wisła River. This was the area known as Skarpa Dobrska, which for me captured the essence of traditional Polish landscape. This part of the Skarpa (geologically formed from the receding riverbank) extended into a soft undulating pattern of small fields leading down to streams – the Chodelka – that flow into the mighty river. It was whilst exploring this region that I met the plantsman Mr Kosik. The preparation and installation of an exhibition of cyanotypes was influenced by my engagement with this remarkable man.

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Above left: Mr Kosik preparing BlackcurrantsDobre Poland 2007

This visit to Dobre strengthened

Above right: Exhibition poster Theory of the Petal Dobre Poland 2007 designed by Katy Bentall.

our delightful hamlet in the Scottish

Right: Hut Studio Dobre Poland 2007

my engagement with the beauty of Polish countryside. The contrast to Scotland was palpable. Even around Borders, the effects of intensive farming, the misuse of fertilisers to create grass yields for unhealthy levels of livestock, produced run offs into streams which had a devasting effect on the plant and river life. You can still experience healthy streams and rivers in Poland, often teeming with fish, something I have rarely experienced in Scotland.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Exhibitions

Blue Flora Celtica Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, 2008 An opportunity of exhibiting at the Foksal Gallery in 2008, followed on from a Demarco Foundation tour of Poland, which I was invited to join. This important independent gallery based in Warsaw had over the years shown all the major European artists. The Foksal Gallery was founded in 1966. The idea of founding a gallery with a focus on searching out and highlighting radical approaches to contemporary art, was developed by art critics, such as Wiesław Borowski, Anka Ptaszkowska, Mariusz Tchorek, and artists, including Tadeusz Kantor, Henryk Stażewski, Zbigniew Gostomski, Edward Krasiński and Roman Owidzki. In the beginning, the Foksal Gallery was run by Wiesław Borowski, Anka Ptaszkowska and Mariusz Tchorek, and later, for nearly thirty-five years, it was nominally directed only by Wiesław Borowski. In the 1970s, the gallery co-operated with art critic Andrzej Turowski, later joined by Milada Ślizińska, Jaromir Jedliński and others. It also attracted great photographers, such as Tadeusz Rolke, Eustachy Kossakowski, Zygmunt Targowski, Jerzy Borowski and Piotr Barącz. Thanks to their work, the gallery holds a unique collection of texts and photographic documentation of artistic events covering more than forty years. The archives of the gallery are open to the public and are used by a wide circle of art critics and art researchers, and also by sociologists and cultural anthropologists. From the outset, the Foksal Gallery has been a not-for-profit project. The Director of the Foksal Gallery, Jaromir Jedlinski, was intrigued by my previous connection to Joseph Beuys as he had also met Beuys when a large collection of Beuys’s work POLENTRANSPORT, 1981, was gifted to Muzeum Sztuki Łódź in 1981. For this exhibition, I again collaborated with Richard Ashrowan, who created a triple film projection of Fingal’s Cave at Staffa, a place that Beuys had hoped to visit but never did, while I would prepare a large group of cyanotypes, Blue Flora Celtica, my response to Beuys’s work Celtic (Kinloch Rannoch) Scottish Symphony, first performed at ECA. Blue Flora Celtica gives form to the dynamic creative processes that mark out my conceptual journey, my own search for the Opposite: Exhibition Foksal Gallery 2008 (courtesy Foksal Gallery)

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blue flower, mapping out key principles, realisations, and breakthroughs that made the exhibition, to an extent, a retrospective. These ideas are contained within the catalogue from the exhibition offering a detailed response to my practice through an interview with my studio assistant at the time, Gemma Bentley.

In Search of the Blue Flower Residency

Sensorium Brantwood House and Lancaster University, 2009 In 2008, I was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship which would enable me to have a yearlong artist residency at Brantwood, Ruskin’s home in the English Lake District. Ruskin’s arrival at Brantwood in 1872 saw him at the final stage of his already full and complex life. The great works – Modern Painters (1843–1860), Unto This Last (1860), and others – were behind him. Yet he sensed that Brantwood with its extraordinary natural resources, could also form an important legacy. The philosopher-critic perched in his rocky retreat had been seeking isolation and time away from the world, but he was simultaneously aware that he now had an opportunity to develop ideas that would permanently encourage and inspire anyone who came to visit. I chose to arrive at Brantwood in November. I wanted to wander quietly through the estate, walking the paths that Ruskin walked. I was drawn to his view of the steep hillside as a working laboratory - an idea rooted, not in cultural remodelling, but in land experiments driven by a close observation of nature. It was in this moorland garden that the elderly Ruskin embarked on his most ambitious earth-shaping experiment. The development of the moorland garden was the last time Ruskin was physically active. It was also a way of sustaining the visionary ideas that found fruition in the Guild of St George, which he established in 1872. Ruskin viewed the Guild as a potential means of buttressing the declining (as he saw it) state of Britain with a rural utopia. It was a working site, as in all things Ruskin. He wanted to use the land to offer possible solutions to Lakeland husbandry. It was done on the Ruskin scale, with an eye for detail and created with respect for the site. Here, is his final offering to us, an example of how humanity can learn from the land and work in harmony with a place. He is instructing us to see deeply into the landscape and leave as little a trace of change as possible. On arrival I was offered accommodation in the house. It had been open to the public for several years, but within the house was a set of private rooms, including a bedroom and sitting room with library. The library was to be my focus, examining the plant writings of Ruskin and working with the head gardener and beginning to unravel areas of the grounds where the spirit of Ruskin was still very present. The selected site was the moorland garden, the location of which meant that it had not experienced the later adaptations which most gardens suffer as later generations take over, or as they become open to the public with the need to fulfil certain health and safety requirements.

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Above and right: View from my sitting room residency Brantwood 2009

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In Search of the Blue Flower Residency

I spent a year walking the same route every day, observing the surroundings closely. It was to fully understand that plants, as they are rooted to a site, must determine other methods to communicate with the wider world. This notion of plant communication was a theme I further developed as a film project during my stay at Brantwood. Following Ruskin, who saw this site as a laboratory to try out ideas around plant cultivation, I tried to develop a similar, deep understanding of the moorland site, keeping at bay any instinct to change or alter the landscape. Close to the house was a large barn-like building, which offered scope for conversion into a studio. My daily routine was established, and I consciously decided, although I was sometimes tempted to do otherwise, to confine my focus to the Ruskin moorland site and to avoid seeking out other settings, even though there were many within this incredible Lake District landscape. The companion in my research was the head gardener Sally Beamish, and I quickly discovered that she shared my interest in biodynamic methods and the teachings of Goethean Science. I shared our progress as we carried out various experiments with phenology teams at the RBGE and on my occasional visits to Pishwanton. The idea of exploring the inner energy of plants started at Brantwood. With sap extracted from a variety of woodlands plants, the results were intriguing, with a clear pattern of change as the moon became stronger in each lunar cycle. Curiously, I now had two methods to reveal the plant, namely the cyanotype revealing the outer form, and the sap picture showing the inner condition of the plant. At the end of the year, the exhibition Sensorium: Pictures from Nature’s Laboratory, was held in Brantwood House, with further exhibitions at the University of Lancaster Ruskin Centre, and the newly established gallery at the John Hope Centre, RBGE.

Opposite top: Moorland Garden Brantwood 2008 Opposite bottom: Artist’s studio during residency at Brantwood 2008

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In Search of the Blue Flower Exhibitions

The Trace Muzalewska Gallery, Poznań, 2009 The following years were very intensive with numerous projects and research ideas. The exhibition – The Trace – was a response to a period of enquiry funded by the British Council Darwin Now award programme in 2009, enabling me to spend time with Professor Piotr Tryjanowski, Professor of Zoology and Research Professor at the Centre for Behavioural Ecology, University of Poznań, as well as Gallery Muzalewska director Hanna Muzalewska. The area of my enquiries was the work Professor Tryjanowski had carried out into the Common Dog Violet, a study within the field of phenology. This was a wonderful project, offering the scope to explore the findings of a forty-year research programme into how this plant was responding to climate change. This had been a plant that I had become very familiar with at Brantwood. Right: Dog Violet Poznań Poland 2009 Far right: Hannah on a mushroom hunt Poznań Poland 2009

On the Edge of the World – Darwin Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 2010 On my return to Scotland, to celebrate the Darwin Awards, the British Council asked me to help with the idea of an exhibition, conference and catalogue. It was a natural choice to hold an exhibition and conference at RBGE – On the Edge of the World.

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Stromata (touring exhibition) Scottish Highlands, 2011 A request from the Highland Council to celebrate my work through a touring exhibition enabled me to bring work back to Caithness and also to acknowledge the work of Robert Dick. His inspiration when I was struggling to find a direction and cope with the difficult early school years was essential. One story which has never been researched or explored was his lost fern garden in Caithness. During his extensive walks through the Flow Country he collected a variety of fern plants. To keep them safe he created a fern garden in a remote and difficult location. This, like Ruskin Rock, proved an irresistible challenge. Consulting whatever texts existed on the subject, I did pin it down to one area, and with Education Officer Christine Russell (now Gunn) from Caithness Horizons, we set off to find it.

Right: The site of Robert Dick’s lost fern garden Reay Caithness 2011

In 2011, a touring exhibition titled Stromata began at St. Fergus Gallery in Wick, before travelling to the Swanson Gallery in Thurso, Timespan in Helmsdale, the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, and finally the Iona Gallery in Kingussie. This offered a retrospective of my work and a short film of the search for the fern garden.

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In Search of the Blue Flower Public Arts

Designing for Dignity Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow, 2014 An opportunity in 2014 to fully integrate my social engagement practice with my naturebased work resulted from a commission to design seventy rooms for a new hospital being built on the outskirts of Glasgow. The hospital project brings together children’s and adult acute services with existing maternity, neo-natal, and neurosciences services on one campus. It has the biggest critical care complex and one of the biggest emergency departments in Scotland, providing a brand new fourteen-floor adult hospital with 1,109 beds. The new children’s hospital, with a separate identity and entrance, adjoins the adult hospital, with 256 beds over five storeys. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was one largest hospital building programmes in Europe. The hospital required an artist working with a team of designers, to create suitable rooms in which to hold difficult conversations, to treat patients and their families with dignity, especially if the news was going to be painful to receive. I was given time to explore ways of working with hospital volunteers, and through nature workshops in a Glasgow Garden. We slowly began to determine what designs and artworks within a clinical setting would meet the concept of patient dignity. Over a period of a year, I held various workshops and events to understand the design opportunities available within nature. A programme of cyanotype workshops using plants in the garden, selected by volunteers, children and adults, led to the designs that would be incorporated into each of the rooms.

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Opposite : cyanotype workshop Hidden Garden Glasgow 2014 Right: Open Day cyanotype workshop Hidden Garden Glasgow 2015

As with other public art commissions, finding sympathetic manufacturers able to meet the demands of clinical hygiene was essential. The team assembled included furniture designers, fabric manufacturers, lighting consultants, plus digital designers, and wonderful people skilled in plant knowledge, and organisations enabling an artist to work within their environment. The Life Science Trust – Pishwanton, Scotland, 2019 In 2019, I finally carried out the residency at Pishwanton, the Goethean Life Science Centre at the edge of the Lammermuir Hills. My debt to the founder of the centre was now paid. It was a good time to complete the residency, as already many of the founder’s principles were being swept away as a new organisation took on the role of making the wood and its buildings financially sustainable.

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Further Observations on my Career as an Artist

When a wood near to Pishwanton came up for sale, I realised that with access to my own wood, the possibilities of new research and engagement with nature could begin. As a member of the Guild of St. George, I was finally able to carry out my responsibility to purchase an area of land and manage it according to their principles. Following the touring exhibition in Caithness my artistic energies were reactivated. The retrospective enabled me to feel that in the past fifty years of activity, I had taken the process of the cyanotype to a point where it was complete. I had created a substantial body of work during this time. I used one final residency at Pishwanton to make a new body of work, but I wanted to offer my services to a dedicated group of curators and academics which had achieved so much to promote photography. The Scottish Society for the History of Photography (SSHoP) was established in 1983. Its primary mission was to present the story of photography and Scotland’s central role within that history. Although the art world had embraced photography in the early 19th century, a lingering resentment was still detectable, and nowhere more so than in Scotland where the art establishment still struggled to embrace not only the artform of photography but also its principal practitioners. This was rather curious as many of the Scottish artists who had achieved a global reputation for their work were very early pioneers of photography as art, none more so than Hill & Adamson. The role of SSHoP was vital to keep that focus and to bring forward many unknown artists whose work remains neglected. To undertake this work, the society had taken on the production of a journal but in 2016, SSHoP hit a crisis point, and I was approached to step in and chair the organisation. An early commitment I made was that we would produce not one but two journals a year, as well as addressing the issue of making the journal much more publicly available.

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A decision was made to use the journal name Studies in Photography to counter the rather clubby feel that a society can engender. Five years on, this has all been achieved. And in 2021 I oversaw the production of our first book Strategy: Get Arts: 35 Artists Who Broke the Rules. I personally felt that after fifty years this story had to be told, a story which has had such a deep and profound influence on my career as an artist. The book was primarily authored by Christian Weikop, Professor in Art History at the University of Edinburgh, who I first met in 2016 when he organised an international conference on Joseph Beuys, at Edinburgh College of Art. My own contribution to the book considered in detail the important role these artists who came to Edinburgh from Düsseldorf in 1970 played in my life, and Christian and I collaborated with a number of individuals who were directly involved, or who had maintained a keen interest, in this pivotal exhibition. The publication of the book led to a distribution and marketing partnership with Edinburgh University Press. This partnership helps foster the development of a new category called Art and Visual Culture. Studies in Photography is preparing a range of new publications for this category, featuring Scottish photographic artists for which I will be the series editor. To launch the first in this series, covering my own work, I invited Sara Stevenson, a close friend and past Curator of Photography at the National Galleries of Scotland, to introduce it. My publishing activity with Sara has increased as we both edit the companion publication to Studies called Leaves. Through text and photography, this timely publication explores the deep connection between heath, wellbeing, art and nature. I feel my world of social engagement, combined with a desire to respond to nature, a circle of artistic activity and creative collaboration in my mind, has now been fully realised through such publications.

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The Art of Cyanotype Essays on the Artist’s Practice

Paradox in Blue Mike Ware The Cyanotype Process James Berry A Shining Aesthetic Richard Ovenden Strategy: Get Arts Christian Weikop Bird Nest Fern Vanessa Sellars Emblem of a Quest Euan McArthur Glenfinlas Julie Lawson Blue Flora Celtica Gemma Rolls-Bentley The Trace Jaromir Jedlinski The Trace Piotr Tryjanowski Sensorium: Pictures from Nature’s Laboratory Howard Hull On the Edge of the World British Council Exhibition, John Hope Gateway Gallery Stromata Christine Gunn Pishwanton Alex Hamilton Haar Wood Sara Stevenson

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The Art of Cyanotype Paradox in Blue Mike Ware

Blue is the rarest of colours in the natural world. Viewed through chemist’s eyes, our landscapes

always represents the Lord Krishna, one of

display the green photosynthetic pigment of

the incarnations of Vishnu the Preserver, with

the plant kingdom, chlorophyll, supported by

blue skin.

the deep browns of lignins and tannins, organic macromolecules formed in growing wood, and the soil similarly coloured with complex humic acids. Many rocks and sands are stained with the reddish oxides of iron. For blueness, our world has only one ubiquitous source: light from the hemisphere of a clear sky. This does not contradict the scarcity of blue substances among anthocyanin flower pigments, because the sky’s colour is not due to absorption of sunlight, but to preferential scattering of its shorter wavelengths by our atmosphere. From a distance, the ultimate colour signature of our planet is Carl Sagan’s poetic ‘Pale Blue Dot’. Alexander Hamilton’s artistic dedication to our

Given the universal scarcity of blue pigmentation in the natural world, and the noble role of blue in the traditions of painting, it is paradoxical that some photographic artists of the late 19th Century should have treated the cyanotype process largely with contempt. Critical connoisseurs like Peter Henry Emerson deemed cyanotypes unnatural, and unworthy of exhibition or acquisition. Today, in contrast, the process enjoys widespread popularity, but it is evident that some users still cannot tolerate its intrinsic colour. Go to any online forum devoted to ‘alternative photography’, and you may be surprised by the number of pictorial offerings described as “cyanotype” that are not, in fact, blue! The overriding priority of

natural botanical environment has led him to

many contemporary practitioners is immediately

choose the photographic medium of cyanotype

to tone their successful blue images to brown or

to represent his plant forms. This process yields

black with tea or coffee – or some other beverage!

images in the pigment, Prussian blue, a substance that has never been found in nature. It did not even exist before 1706, when it was first accidentally synthesised in Berlin by an artists’ colour-maker called Johann Diesbach. Among all the colours of the painter’s palette, blue enjoys iconic status for its religious connotations of spirituality and innocence. In the traditions of Western art, Mary’s mantle is invariably rendered in blue, using the pigment ultramarine; and the superb altarpiece of the Wilton Diptych depicts the entire court of heaven clad in blue. Churches of the Greek Orthodox tradition are conspicuously

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decorated in blue. Hindu religious painting

In his 1997 essay The Art of the Cyanotype, John Wood seeks a reason for the sense of incongruity that pervades the cyanotype. He puts forward two antithetical interpretations of the colour blue: on the one hand, Wood asserts that blue is ‘celebratory, affirmative and joyous’; on the other, that it has a ‘dark side’ which is ‘sad, depressed, and disturbing’. He then proposes this dichotomy of a ‘joyous-ominous’ colour as the source of the ‘peculiar magic’ of the cyanotype. Is it possible that Hamilton’s choice of this equivocal medium reflects his own celebration

of the botanical ecology that he loves, conflicting

to the image. Lying bright on the dark blue ground,

with profound concerns for its vulnerability to

the plant signals its presence, thus fulfilling

climate change or other depredations?

Hamilton’s intention of “allowing the flora to

The choice of a surreal colour for a monochrome artwork on paper is an abstraction that confronts

speak for themselves.” In making a cyanotype, the manipulations accord

viewers accustomed to the neutral hues of

with ‘being true to materials’. The sensitizer

graphite, ink, or silver. But there is a further visual

solution is hand-coated onto pure cotton-cellulose

challenge offered by these cyanotypes that have

paper, much like applying a watercolour wash.

been made as photograms, i.e. by lensless contact

The solution contains chemicals from natural

printing. The negative-working photochemistry

sources: iron salts with citric acid from fruits,

determines that unimpeded UV light generates

and ferrocyanide chemistry from extracts of

a deep blue ground; any shadows cast upon it

nitrogenous animal residues. (This was an

by translucent objects placed on the paper are

unsavoury process in the 18th and 19th centuries,

rendered in a proportional scale of paler blues

when dried ox blood was initially used to supply

or even, where the object is most opaque, paper

this previously unknown chemistry, but vegan

white. Because they embody a degree of tonal

readers may now be reassured that ferrocyanides

reversal, they are quasi negative images. Thus

are prepared today by purely inorganic means!)

Hamilton’s photogram artwork confronts us with

To print the photogram, the plant is carefully

a double challenge to our conventional visual

pressed upon the paper under glass; it can then

perceptions: there is the paradox of representing

intercept the rays of the sun, which delineate its

nature by the unnatural Prussian blue and,

structure as a unique image, to be processed

moreover, with an inverted tonal scale that

simply by water. It is environmentally safe, and of

depends on the object’s opacity to transmitting

low toxicity – notwithstanding the word “cyanide”

light -not on its reflectivity, as in normal camera

appearing in the chemistry! Prussian blue can be

photography. Nonetheless, the making of

susceptible to further strong illumination causing

botanical photograms in cyanotype has endured

it to fade; but the resulting Prussian white has the

since the earliest years of 1843-53 when Anna

remarkable property of absorbing oxygen from

Atkins produced her historic rendering of British

the air, which restores it chemically to Prussian

Algae. Hamilton’s work sits firmly within this

blue by oxidation. In this reversible response the

unorthodox tradition of lensless photographic

pigment could be said poetically to “breath” as it

practice. Almost nowhere else are negatives

repeatedly makes its recovery and secures the

accepted and enjoyed as photographic art.

permanence of the image.

The reason for this success may lie in the tonal inversion itself: by representing the plant with light tones, it seems to bring its own luminance

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The Art of Cyanotype The Cyanotype Process James Berry

The cyanotype or blueprint process falls between

In the cyanotype process, paper was coated with

two major developments of early photography:

equal portions of ferric ammonium citrate and

the calotype, patented by William Henry Fox

potassium ferricyanide. After exposure to light

Talbot in 1841, and the albumen process

through a translucent drawing or natural speci-

introduced in 1850. The cyanotype is one of the

men, the ferric salts were reduced to ferrous,

most permanent of all. Only carbon and platinum

with a deep olive green image. After a bath in

processes can rival its image stability, and all

water the image took on a Prussian blue pigment,

three will outlast silver based prints.

a compound of iron. This colour is well known for

Sir John Herschel (1792- 1871), the inventor of this process, made many contributions to the development of early photography. These range

its stability in painting. The image could be easily fixed in water which washed away areas unaffected by light and made the image permanent.

from giving us the terms ‘photography’, ‘positive’,

Undoubtedly, the cyanotype’s greatest claim to

‘negative’, and ‘snapshot’, to the use of glass

fame came with the well documented work of

plates as a support for sensitive silver salts.

Anna Atkins and her publication British Algae:

His major contribution, however, was the discovery,

Cyanotype Impressions (1843-53). The book, which

in 1819, that sodium thiosulphate, or hyposulphate

contains over 400 cyanotypes taken over this

as it was known, is a solvent for silver salts. This

ten year period, elevated photography from book

made it possible to ‘fix’ photographs and render

illustration to art form in its own right. It is a prime

them permanent, and thiosulphates are still used

example of the expressive potential of early

today for this very purpose.

photography. Unlike Anna Atkins’s work, which

Many chemists had noticed the action of light upon various compounds of iron before Herschel, but, in 1840 and 1842, he was the first to use the salts of that metal for the photographic process he named cyanotype. In 1842 Herschel communicated the cyanotype process to the

suffers from considerable loss of surface detail in the process, Alexander Hamilton’s images are remarkable for their level of detail which produces a precise sense of form and, in some cases, of surface colour. The plant pigmentation is transferred over into

Royal Society in a paper titled ‘On the Action

the cyanotype during the pressing process.

of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Vegetable

Hamilton’s technical ability, to control the light

Colours and on some New Photographic

and regulate the pressure with which he lays

Processes’.

the plant on the coated paper, sets his work apart from what has been done before.

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The Art of Cyanotype A Shining Aesthetic Richard Ovenden

Cyanotype: If a nomenclature of this kind

The early uses of the cyanotype have, perhaps,

be admitted (and it has some

contributed to this feeling. The first woman to

recommendations), the whole class of

practice photography, Anna Atkins, became the

processes in which cyanogen in its

most celebrated cyanotype practitioner. She

combinations with iron performs a leading

used the process, the most accurate she knew,

part, and in which the resulting pictures are

to display the forms of British algae. The images

blue, may be designated by this epithet ... .*

were published privately in British Algae:

Thus, the discovery of the cyanotype process was heralded in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, in a suitably modest, scientific manner. With hindsight, it seems appropriate that the cyanotype should have been invented by one of the most eminent and influential scientists of the early-nineteenth century. The incredible flurry of activity which surrounded the hunt for the best means to fix the actions of light upon a sheet of paper, was entered into by a variety of men and

Cyanotype Impressions and, later, she applied the process to ferns, feathers, and flowers. The systematic treatment she gave natural subjects, with its clear and careful layout of seaweeds, ferns, plant specimens and feathers, provided the ' user' of these books (and they were intended for practical scientific purposes) with clear specimens for analysis. This facet has always been one of photography's most original contributions.

women with scientific ambitions, some gentle

The method used to create cyanotypes: contacting

amateurs, others entrepreneurs with an eye to

the subject with sensitized paper underneath a

commercial gain. But for Herschel the motivation

heavy sheet of glass and exposing it to light,

lay purely in the realms of science. He felt,

enables the viewer to get very close to the

however, that his direct-positive process,

subjects. They almost convey the feeling that

with which the cyanotype is associated today,

they have been dissected and laid out as

possessed 'pre-eminent beauty'. And the

anatomical specimens, ready for the closest

aesthetic qualities which marked out Herschel's

possible examination. Anna Atkins was certainly

process during the period of discovery and

trying to achieve this effect, and she wrote in the

invention in the 1830s and 1840s, give the images

preface to her study of algae:

created in the 20th century (and this applies particularly to Alexander Hamilton's work) a sense of owing as much to the scientist's laboratory as to the artist's studio.

The difficulty of making accurate drawings of objects as minute as many of the Algae and Confervae, has induced me to avail myself of Sir john Herschel's beautiful process of cyanotype, to obtain impressions of the plants themselves, which I have much pleasure in offering to my botanical friends.

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A Shining Aesthetic Richard Ovenden

The scientist's awareness of the aesthetic

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But what of the artist? The space which

qualities of the medium is evident here. Alexander

Alexander Hamilton has created, and in which

Hamilton's cyanotypes, too, demonstrate an

the subjects – roses, tulips, poppies, gladioli – are

awareness which resonates with the work

laid-out, provides a setting in which contemplation

of the early practitioners of photography. His

can occur at several different levels. By isolating

cyanotypes of flowers utilise the same effects

the rose, for example, from its setting in the formal

which Anna Atkins brought to bear on her

garden, hedgerow, greenhouse, window box

seaweeds and ferns in the early nineteenth

or wherever, Alexander Hamilton provides the

century, and which micro-photographers like

viewer with an environment in which to

W. A. Bentley brought to the documentation of

contemplate it without distraction. At the same

snow crystals. But he adds an extra dimension.

time, he or she can connect with the subject like

Certainly, the images have been made using

a scientist viewing a specimen under the

the same combination of fieldwork: collecting the

microscope. Producing the image in the variable

specimens/subjects, and in Alexander Hamilton's

shades of Prussian blue heightens the sense of

case, actually cultivating them; laboratory work:

the subject's isolation. But it is the context of the

laying out and displaying the subjects, sensitizing

surrounding that reminds us of the origins of the

the paper, exposing and processing the resultant

process, of Herschel's involvement with the

image. The tradition of botanical illustration

universe, with that which is greater, and with the

has also influenced the appearance of these

infinite. The same scientific and astronomical in-

cyanotypes, especially in the large-petal images,

terest gave birth to the cyanotype process, itself

formally laid out, side-by-side. Thus the scientist

a chemical and physical discovery that, conversely,

is present, working with a method carefully honed

arose out of inquiries into the smallest elements

by logical experimentation to operational

of the universe. The deep shades created in

perfection and subject to all known variables.

Alexander Hamilton's images, when combined

Like all the early photographic processes, the

with the layout of small flowers, produces an

materials used in cyanotypes are hazardous,

image reminiscent of astronomical views of

and consistent results require carefully controlled

distant galaxies, set against the endlessly varied

handling.

tones of the universe itself

The space, clarity of vision, and the almost formal

Hamilton's work also echoes the later output of

layout of the subjects in Alexander Hamilton's

Alfred Stieglitz, whose theory of 'equivalents '

work also resonates with the simplicity found in

holds that pure and objective elements such

Far Eastern artistic expression. Clearing the view

as line, shape, and colour, can express precise

of unnecessary encumbrances invites direct

constructions of abstract thought and shades of

access to the meditative state which is a

emotion and feeling. The significant difference

prerequisite to the appreciation of much

between the two bodies of work is the aesthetic

Zen-inspired art. The mystical elements which

which shines through Alexander Hamilton's

pervade such works of art come across most

cyanotypes. Their power derives from leaving the

powerfully in Hamilton's spiral cyanotypes. Other

viewer free to establish a unique connection with

20th century photographers have tried to capture

each image.

the spatially aware, mystical spirit. The most successful of these artists have often chosen botanical specimens to achieve this, and one

* quoted in Larry J. Schaaf, Out of the Shadows: Herschel, Talbot and the Invention of Photography, New Haven, 1992.

thinks particularly of Carlotta Corpron’s Solarized Calla Lilies, and of Irving Penn's flower series. Penn's electrically colourful photographs (taken originally for Vogue), may seem to bear little relation to Alexander Hamilton's scientific approach, but they share important common ground. The emphasis on form and the simplicity of context (Hamilton's blue paper, Penn's white studio) encourage the subjects to be viewed without the diversion of surroundings. These images also bear comparison with some of the 'studio' (or, more accurately, 'window sill') work of the Czech photographer Josef Sudek, for whom the arrangement and play of light gave life to seemingly dead subjects. The skill of both artists is to capture that life, and to hint at something beyond.

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The Art of Cyanotype Strategy: Get Arts Christian Weikop

Born in 1950, Alexander Hamilton was brought up in Caithness, not far from Dunnet Head, the most

or indeed by its successor, the Black Mountain

northerly point of the UK. This region, this large,

College in North Carolina, the different disciplines

rolling expanse of peatland and wetland, known

of art were strictly separated at ECA. Furthermore,

as the ‘Flow Country’, is a wild blanket bog habitat.

tutors in the Painting School were still coming to

A desire to creatively respond to this extraordinary

terms with the legacy of the pre-war Scottish

landscape, to engage in nature, in part motivated

Colourists. After 1945, there was a frustrating

Hamilton to enrol as an art student at Edinburgh

sense of ECA being ‘behind the curve’ of artistic

College of Art (ECA) in 1968. This was the year

developments, when as a city art college it

of a wave of student unrest, which among other

should have been at the cutting edge.

things, questioned the conformist organisation and lack of relevance of educational establishments to contemporary society. In British art schools, this eruption of disquiet started with a six-week occupation of the central building at Hornsey College of Art in London in May 1968. The protests rippled out as far as Edinburgh, but developed in a less radical fashion. According to Hamilton, who engaged in student politics, the Scottish capital was, at this time, ‘a dour and very conservative place’.

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espoused, for example, by the Bauhaus in Germany,

Hamilton did not respond with any particular enthusiasm to Neoclassical or ‘Scottish Colourist’ traditions, the latter of which he saw as a specious adoption of the bold colour palette of French Post-impressionism, rather than a form of art that authentically engaged with the peat hues and ‘haar’ atmosphere of Scottish landscapes. That is not to say that Hamilton was culturally nationalist in his vision (the opposite is true), but rather than looking to modern French art, his international stimulus came from an appreciation of avant-

ECA tended to be traditionalist in approach, with

garde artists such as Kurt Schwitters, as well as

some teaching practices relating to neoclassical

contemporary European art movements, such as

pedagogy, requiring, for instance, the faithful

Arte Povera. He also admired the American land

artistic study of plaster casts of Antique sculpture.

artist Robert Smithson, and Allan Kaprow, who

Walking between the giant order Doric columns

was pioneering in developing the ‘Environment’

supporting the portico of ECA’s main entrance,

and ‘Happening’ in the late 1950s and 1960s, and

a student would have an impression of a temple

whose work Hamilton came to know through

devoted to neoclassical ideals, a feeling only

avidly scouring art magazines such as Studio

heightened inside the building by the presence

International. Another important stimulus came

of the Parthenon casts, a gift from Lord Elgin

from his repeat visits to the pioneering Richard

to Edinburgh in 1827. Seemingly impervious to

Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh’s Melville Crescent,

the inter-disciplinary and experimental ideas

which is where he came across the work of

Below: Strategy: Get Arts Reiner Ruthenbeck paper mountain (highland installation) Photo © George Oliver

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Strategy: Get Arts Christian Weikop

the artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay, who created an extraordinary Arcadian garden called

Reiner Ruthenbeck, who would create a small

‘Little Sparta’, buried in the Pentland Hills, which

mountainous pile of crumpled black paper on a

Hamilton frequented in the late 1960s, and which

studio floor, which he referred to as a ‘highland’,

further prompted a desire to immerse himself

helped Beuys in the installation of The Pack, and

in nature. In August 1970, having already completed the general course, Hamilton was preparing to go into the Drawing and Painting School as a third-year student. An opportunity arose to participate as an artists’ assistant for an exhibition, entitled Strategy: Get Arts, that was to be staged at ECA between 24 August and 12 September 1970, as part of the Edinburgh Festival programme, principally initiated and organised by Demarco and Demarco Gallery staff, in close collaboration with the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. This exhibition brought thirty five artists who were based in the dynamic city of Düsseldorf to a somewhat sleepy Edinburgh for the first time, including now famous German artists such as Blinky Palermo, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Günther Uecker, Stefan Wewerka, and Joseph Beuys, as well as other non-German artists, such as Daniel Spoerri, Robert Filliou, Tony Morgan, and Dorothy Iannone. Hamilton appears in photographs by George Oliver (partner of Guardian art critic Cordelia Oliver), who was hired by the Demarco Gallery to photo-document the exhibition, and whose work appeared on the distinctive SGA catalogue cover designed by Demarco’s ECA contemporary, John Martin. Hamilton can be seen, along with other student assistants, helping various artists install their

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‘environments’ in ECA studio spaces. He assisted

worked with Uecker to create a dramatic corridor of knives. Hamilton also sourced chairs from Sam Burns’ Yard in Prestonpans, which Wewerka and others then smashed on the main staircase of ECA, in homage to Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925). Wewerka’s broken chairs lay beneath an intervention into the fabric of the building by Palermo, whose Blue/Yellow/White/Red, was a wall painting comprising a horizontal band of primary colours, which ran around the architrave. Hamilton has observed how these installations and interventions were simply too much for the college authorities to accept, an abuse of classical order, with some seeing Wewerka’s piece as tantamount to hooliganism. Particularly problematic was Gotthard Graubner’s Homage to Turner, which was the creation of a ‘mist room’ in a confined foam-surfaced studio space. This led to a fire in ECA, generated by a smoke-making machine, as witnessed by Hamilton, Beuys, and others, and which caused considerable damage to one of the college rooms.

Above: Strategy: Get Arts Andre Thomkins signs Above right: Blinky Palermo executing Blue/Yellow/White/Red Right: Installation of Joseph Beuys Arena 1970 Photos © George Oliver

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Right top: Strategy:Get Arts manoeuvring the Joseph Beuys VW camper van in the ECA sculpture corridor (The Pack) 1970 Right bottom: Alexander Hamilton waving goodbye at Strategy:Get Arts 1970 Photos © George Oliver :

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Strategy: Get Arts Christian Weikop

In spite of press coverage commenting on the

Hamilton would remain in the painting school,

progressive nature of the ECA SGA exhibition,

but ultimately stopped painting. For his diploma

outstripping anything that could be seen in

show in 1972, he exhibited an installation of

London that year, conservative forces would

leaves. Furious ECA staff demanded his expulsion,

reassert themselves. Palermo’s wall painting was

with only an external assessor allowing him to

whitewashed, along with any other trace of SGA,

graduate. This attempt to expel Hamilton could

shortly after the exhibition ended. With that

be compared with the institutional friction also

gesture, the memory of this extraordinary

experienced by Beuys the same year, when in

takeover of the art college, a remarkable

October, he was dismissed from his post as a

‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ by artists from Düsseldorf

Professor of Sculpture at the Kunstakademie

in the late summer of 1970, certainly the most

Düsseldorf. This was also the year that Hamilton

significant moment in the history of the art

took part of his Diploma show (an ivy wreath)

college (and possibly the Edinburgh Festival’s

down to the Tate, London, to place in front of a

history), was symbolically wiped out. ECA swiftly

Beuys installation in an act of homage, only to be

dismissed the Dada-like activities of the ‘merry

escorted to the office of the Director, Sir Norman

pranksters’ of Düsseldorf and regressed to old

Reid, to explain himself. Reid tried and failed to

practices based on time-honoured ideas of

reach Beuys by phone to verify his awareness of

artistic virtuosity, as well as retreating (in the

this ‘action’, but he listened to the young artist’s

Painting School at least) to addressing the

explanation and gave him a document indicating

Scottish Colourist tradition. But for Hamilton, and

the acquisition of his work for the Tate archive,

some other young artists and art critics, who had

an institutional acknowledgement previously

participated or observed Strategy: Get Arts, things

denied him.

would never be the same again. And of the various artists involved in SGA, it was Beuys who had the most enduring impact on Hamilton’s own practice, particularly a love of ecology, as evidenced in Beuys’s many leaf collages, his co-founding of the German Green Party, and his utopian project 7000 Oaks.

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The Art of Cyanotype Bird Nest Fern Vanessa Sellers

The result of an exploration into the aesthetic properties of leaves and light undertaken by the artist in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this impressive study combines artistic prowess, chemical experimentation, and biological knowhow. While clearly drawing inspiration from microscopic patterns in nature, the work is suffused by the atmosphere of deep forest. The opaque grey-green hues that envelop and set off the delicate golden silhouette of the fernleaves add an element of mystery. Bird Nest Fern was first shown in the autumn of 1989 at an exhibit of Hamilton’s work in Chelsea, New York, entitled The Origin of Species, and subsequently in the summer of 1990 at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY. Most recently (2009), a newer version of Bird Nest Fern entitled Bird Nest Fern 2 was exhibited at the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, part of a project funded by the British Council, called Darwin Now. As such, these various showings stand in a long tradition of nature-inspired art exhibitions – including Above: Ivy with beeswax on film 1990

Much of Alexander Hamilton’s work is defined by a passion for nature and a desire to bring together the arts and sciences related to the world of plants. Bird Nest Fern, one of Hamilton’s monumental fern-studies, is a perfect example. A sophisticated amalgam of paint, wax and actual preserved plant material, Bird Nest Fern is at the same time a work of art and Herbarium specimen.

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those held by the American Society of Botanical Artists at NYBG, and by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – all of which celebrate artistic attempts to capture the beauty of nature with poetic precision. Vanessa Sellers Director of the Humanities Institute, New York Botanical Garden. 2020.

Above: Bird Nest Fern with beeswax and film 1990

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The Art of Cyanotype Emblem of a Quest Euan McArthur

Alexander Hamilton's cyanotypes of roses, irises,

cyanotypes are equally absorbing as descriptions

poppies and other flowers are remarkable for the

of botanical specimens. The longer his images

exquisite delicacy with which they record their

are considered the more clearly this dichotomy

fragile subjects. They are equally remarkable for

between the metaphysical and scientific emerges.

their tranquil and dispassionate spirit which invites

Each image is like a fulcrum which balances

study and comparison, but also the poetics of

imagination and method.

contemplation. Cyanotype dispenses with colour, apart from the blue of the field in which the image is suspended. White and semi-transparent, the image has an austerity which contrasts with the seductive blue, sometimes almost black, colour field. The colours of the flowers have leached away, leaving behind a luminous skeleton of petals. What faint traces of colour remain come directly from the impress of the plant itself, the flower or petal being exposed directly onto paper. The concentrated simplicity of the image is highly objective, an objectivity strengthened by symmetrical composition, which is almost a negation of composition. The simplicity of his images seems both matter-

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In terms of photography this is, of course, not without precedent. The scientific origins and applications of photography have always echoed in (and in the minds of some, invalidated) its development as art. If Alexander Hamilton's work owes something to both art and science, it is at one level a common inheritance of all photography. But the particular quality of his work lies in the relationships which it explores. The double inheritance from art and science possesses, in his work, a distinctive resonance. It is the study of beauty as a construction of culture in nature. Behind these apparently simple images, complex cultural values are in play. Their invitation to contemplation doesn't obscure the scientific

of-fact and metaphysically mysterious. At first

methodology that he has adopted to attain

sight, they may appear to be absorbing on account

maximum objectivity. On the contrary, it is a

of their sheer beauty, as though beauty were an

product of that approach. The features, the one

uncomplicated matter. Absolute concentration on

visual and the other conceptual, are present

a simple figure or form has always been an aid to

in the cyanotypes of Alexander Hamilton. His

reverie and meditation. The essential experience

botanical studies have their historical origin in

which art offers is, for some, a means of escape

cyanotypes like those of Anna Atkins, which have

from will and desire. On the other hand, Hamilton's

both aesthetic and scientific aspects, although his

Above: The Peace Rose poster Fotofeis 1993

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Emblem of a Quest Euan McArthur

reveal much more structural detail. Like hers,

of autonomous 'visual facts'. But although the

because of the medium, the image made by

dominant discourse of minimalism may have

Hamilton appears without context, isolated in its

been materialist and anti-representational, the

blue field. Each has an absolute simplicity and

reductive simplicity of minimalist aesthetics led

clarity of presence and presentation. Attention is

also to new metaphors for wholeness and essence.

concentrated on the object itself, for itself. To a much greater degree than Atkins, Hamilton's works are intended and experienced as works of art.

a lineage that is inflected by those minimalist attitudes and aesthetics; ideas which were

To find in Hamilton's work a conjunction of affinities

themselves inflected by the work of earlier

from the earliest days of photography and from

'systematic' photographers. In his work, flower

one of the modernist practices, minimalism, is

heads or petals are exposed to view singly, in

less peculiar than it might seem. Photography

pairs or in rows. Composition is neutralised by

and minimalism have a closer relationship than

symmetrical placement and regular spacing.

is at first apparent. If one line of minimalism's

Species are rigorously separated into closed

parentage came from early abstraction, such

series. Within each image, attention is drawn to

as Malevich's iconic Black Square, Rodchenko 's

structure and to the slight variations in structure

and Tatlin's projects for a functional art, and

between each flower head or petal. Each image

Duchamp's philosophical undermining of the art

invites examination and comparison, its formality

object, another came from the likes of Eugene

and symmetry serving to clarify variations between

Atget, August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt and Walker

individual members of the type displayed.

Evans. All of those photographers 'collected', catalogued and preserved objects, whether architecture, human types, natural forms or industrial structures, and did so by devoting attention to the object rather than to subjective expression or incident. Photographic, scientific and industrial techniques

Made without the mediation of a camera or lens, cyanotype also fulfils another demand of minimalism, that of minimal means. Applied to method, it requires the abandonment of everything other than the absolutely necessary. The elimination of unwanted subjectivity is furthered when process and medium are made

and procedures had their impact on minimalist

as elementary as possible. Hamilton's choice of

concepts of art. Seriality, simplicity, repetition

cyanotype as the necessary medium of his series

of identical or near-identical units, impersonal

reflects its historical antecedents, but also his

manufacture, interest in structure and form,

desire to unify medium, form and content.

resistance to metaphor and association (resistance, in fact, to interpretation) all helped to give the products of minimalism the quality

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Alexander Hamilton's cyanotypes belong to

While his works reveal an affinity with minimalist

to cultural ideals. But they are more than that,

attitudes to the image and to self-expression,

since human intervention in the natural world is

in other respects they are decidedly post- or

more than just wilful tinkering. They are emblems

anti-minimal. Their formality, for example, cannot

of a spiritual quest which has an object beyond

be mistaken for formalism. Where the minimalist

the mundane. It is the particular quality of

norm of the 1960s sought to remove art from the

Hamilton's studies that they are both of these:

taint of narrative and social content in the name

scrupulous transcriptions of appearance, and

of an elementary, ideal and autonomous visuality,

symbols of the urge to transcend the phenomenal

his work, in contrast, calls up a world of meaning

world. The devoted breeding of beauty and the

outside the image itself. Each image, taken

reproduction of that beauty by the direct action

individually, may work as a complete and pure

of light on paper creates potent symbols of the

visual statement of absorbing beauty. In the

world as a numinous reality.

context of the series as a whole, however, it becomes clear that they are neither simply sensuous representations of beauty nor formalist propositions complete in themselves, but are also investigations into the concept and production of beauty.

The Peace Rose and other series supply the context which the individual images lack. In this way they amplify the latent content of each concentrated image. The viewer moves between different positions: from absorption in contemplation of a single flower or petal, to

The Genealogy of the Peace Rose, the most

comparisons between them, to a consideration

thoroughly worked out of his series to date, is

of the meaning of the series as a whole.

a study of selective breeding in pursuit of the

Alexander Hamilton's minimalist-inspired

perfect rose. The genetic structure of each of

objectivity and formality open up beyond the

the family members is modified to enhance, in

image, which becomes a repository of larger

successive generations, the most desirable

cultural discourses that include his and the

characteristics: delicate colouring, large petals,

rose breeders' fascination with the making and

full, shapely head. But ironically, in achieving

reproduction of beauty; and the place of that

these, Peace has lost its fragrance. What may

beauty in a cultural economy of the spirit.

appear to be simply 'natural' is a biological artefact shaped by aesthetic (and economic) priorities. The cultivation of a new flower is the cultural reproduction of an ideal of beauty. In Hamilton's cyanotypes, the short-lived beauty of each individual bloom becomes a frozen symbol of the desire to improve nature according

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Emblem of a Quest Euan McArthur

Above and opposite: Cyanotypes

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79

The Art of Cyanotype Glenfinlas Julie Lawson

In 1853, John Ruskin brought his protégé, the

It seems extraordinarily appropriate that the first

Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais to

artist to revisit the site of the Millais portrait of

Glenfinlas at Brig o’ Turk, near Loch Katrine. Here

Ruskin should be Alexander Hamilton. As a young

he posed for the portrait by Millais – a visual

Edinburgh College of Art student Hamilton was

manifesto. The chosen site contained the

not encouraged by his drawing and painting

elements of nature -rocks, water, plants, trees –

teachers to study nature. In fact he was chastised

that Ruskin had written about in the first volume

for not spending time in the studio, preferring

of Modern Painters and which he urged would-be

to work out of doors in the landscape of the

artists to study All that is desirable…is based upon truths and habits of nature; but we cannot understand those truths until we are acquainted with the specific forms and minor details which they affect or out of which they arise. Millais presents Ruskin dressed in his elegantly tailored city suit and the famous blue stock in which he delivered his lectures the intellectual, the public orator, the teacher; but also – staff in hand – Ruskin the solitary traveller.

studio for his degree show. It is as if he had already heard the words Ruskin addressed to ‘young artists’ at the end of the first volume of Modern Painters: From young artists nothing ought to be tolerated but simple bona fide imitation of nature. {They] should go to Nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and trustingly, having no other thoughts but how best to penetrate her

Ruskin has written, with Wordsworth in mind,

meaning, and remember her instruction;

of the ‘art of the wayside’, that

rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and

No man can be a lover of what is best in the higher walks of art, who has not feeling and charity enough ... to be thankful for the flowers which men have laid their burdens down to sow by the wayside’ (The Stones of Venice, 1853)

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Pentlands, and inviting their strictures when he brought plants, rather than paintings, into the

scorning nothing; believing all things to be right and good, and rejoicing always in the truth.

Since his youth, Hamilton has consciously

Equally, in creating his cyanotypes he is drawn to

immersed himself in the natural landscape;

a process that will only create one unique image

exploring and forging connections with the

of each plant. No two cyanotypes are alike. The

natural world that are fundamental to human life.

search and engagement with nature is to seek

The artist first created cyanotypes while living on

connectivity with all around and allow each plant

the Island of Stroma in the Pentland Firth in 1973.

its own unique blue image. Like Ruskin, he is also

The remoteness of this almost uninhabited island

drawn to the power of the colour blue. This colour

gave Hamilton the opportunity to truly engage

is also symbolic of the quest for knowledge and

with its distinctive landscape and weather

understanding. In Celtic mythology the Blue Flower

conditions, without the usual distractions of the

always exists over the next mountain.

densely populated urban world. The experience of Stroma, would be central to the artist’s ideas and ways of working. Hamilton’s time on the island was an attenuation

In the Glenfinlas cyanotypes, a resonance is established between an understanding of the humble, a particular site and the wayside plants that populate it. This approach was also deeply

of the idea that germinated following the

informed by an extended stay at Brantwood,

completion of his studies at Edinburgh College

the former home of Ruskin in the Lake District,

of Art 1972. Whilst studying, Hamilton opted

in 2007. Living in the same rooms as Ruskin,

to live outside of the crowded city, commuting

reading from his library and walking in his

instead from the countryside. His decade of work from 1990, using the cyanotype process, coincided with his processing of ideas

favourite gardens, all strengthen the artist’s connections with, and understanding of, Ruskin’s ideas and works.

which had been accumulating in his artistic

One text was of particular importance. Ruskin

imagination, in particular the symbolism of certain

spent eleven years working on Proserpina: Studies

plants: roses and the nature of plant breeding;

of Wayside Flowers (1875-1886). In his study he

tulips, the symbol of wealth for the 17th century

attempted to reclassify plants in human terms,

Dutch; and the connection of poppies with sleep

opposing the clinical classifications of Linnaeus,

and the world of dreams. His work The Genealogy

citing Rousseau’s opinion on the business of

of the Peace Rose, exhibited in 1995, asks: what

botany and the mixed value of learning plant

are the rules of this perfection? Who determines

names: ‘Before teaching them to name what

the aesthetic of such rules?

they see, let us begin by teaching them to see it’.

For Hamilton, in contrast to the approach of the

A contemporary Proserpina, an endless search

rose breeder, beauty and humanity lie in the

for a closer connection to the natural world,

imperfect, unfinished or unbalanced. In nature

Hamilton’s work brings a deeper understanding

no two things are alike; all are unique and perfect.

to the reasons for taking the journey and for embracing the mythic, spiritual relation between beings and nature.

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Glenfinlas Julie Lawson

Above: Glenfinlas cyanotype Wild Strawberry Opposite: Glenfinlas cyanotype Herb Robert

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The Art of Cyanotype Blue Flora Celtica Gemma Rolls-Bentley

It is significant that amongst the final pieces of work to be created by Joseph Beuys is Ombelico di Venere – Cotyledon Umbilicus Veneris. The dried flower on paper is signed and dated (1985) on the lower edge and inscribed with the title along the upper. This work could mark the culmination of a life-long investigation into the natural order of things in an attempt to decipher the complex connection with nature inherent in us all. This quest, both personal and artistic, echoes the recurring theme in Germanic folk tradition of the elusive blue flower, die Blaue Blume – the symbol of the endless search for something that always lies beyond the next hill. This may explain Beuys’ continual return to his Teutonic roots, and particularly the romantic tradition. Seminal to Beuys’ work, and crucial to his subsequent international recognition as a dynamic and forward thinking European artist, is his contribution to the exhibition Strategy: Get Arts, held during the 1970 Edinburgh Festival. Working as a gallery assistant for this exhibition, Alexander Hamilton became a key witness to the actions executed by the plethora of innovative artists participating in the exhibition. They were doing so in an effort to broaden Britain’s engagement with international Above: Foksal Gallery 2008

art. This offered Hamilton the opportunity to gain direct contact with artists such as Blinky Palermo, Ruthenbeck, and of course, Beuys. The invitation to Alexander Hamilton was partly to respond to that connection with Beuys and to present a comprehensive display of his cyanotype work.

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Blue Flora Celtica Gemma Rolls-Bentley

Hamilton’s cyanotype work involved the

The visitor to the exhibition is guided through

exploration of certain plants and their role as

the corridor into the main gallery space by the

signifiers: roses and the nature of plant breeding;

instruction ‘We Go This Way’ - a phrase used by

tulips, the 17th century Dutch symbol of wealth;

Beuys on his travels with Caroline Tisdall. This

and poppies – connected with sleep and the

instruction suggests a way forward through the

world of dreams. The cyanotypes of irises in

often-daunting complexity of Beuys’ philosophy

the corridor of the Foksal Gallery introduce the

and art, applied here to Hamilton’s work. It is

visitor to the exhibition and to the complex

an invitation to join him on his own search for

symbolism underpinning the artist’s work. In Greek

understanding through art.

mythology this flower represents the messenger. The artist Joseph Beuys served the crucial role of messenger to Hamilton, relaying the complex and interconnected issues of art, social change and the environment.

of understanding in Hamilton’s artistic journey to date [2008]; a point for reflection, rather than a termination. Although the blue flower may be the signifier of a seemingly-fruitless search for a

The arrangement of the pieces in the corridor

closer connection to the natural world, the work

relates to many of the issues prominent in the

of both Beuys and Hamilton brings a deeper

work and practice of Beuys, as well as various

understanding to the reasons for taking the journey

strands of Hamilton’s own research and concepts.

and for exploring and embracing the mythic,

The iron that frames these cyanotypes has been

spiritual relation between beings and nature

chosen by Hamilton for its natural properties; a material that is constantly changing state and, as such, was also of interest to Beuys. It was used by him in many of his own works, such as, the procession of sledges in The Pack (1969), which were connected to the ground by their iron runners, and in Tram Stop (1976). Hamilton has used pins to attach the cyanotypes to the gallery walls, a method of presentation that recalls that of the collector. The artist, through his process of research, systematic classification, and presentation, takes upon himself the role of collector, thus enabling him to process the information that he has gathered.

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The Foksal Gallery exhibition marks a landmark

Opposite: Foksal Gallery archive 2008 Above: Cyanotype Installation Foksal Gallery 2008

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The Art of Cyanotype Sensorium: Pictures from Nature’s Laboratory Howard Hull

In recent years Brantwood has opened the door on some of Ruskin's visionary ways of looking at plants and the way we live with them. The old 'living laboratory' of the estate has been brought back to life. We have proceeded without prejudice for one orthodoxy or another, following Ruskin 's own exploratory technique, moving towards things that are life – affirming, balanced and generous in husbandry of the land. Alex Hamilton’s time at Brantwood could not have complemented our approach more completely. He has sought to let each plant tell its own story. This sounds deceptively simple. Nothing could, Right: Brantwood House Library and Study 2009

in fact, be more delicate or precise. Alex has developed his handling of the processes of the cyanotype and the chromatograph to a level of refinement that is quite remarkable, creating a

Opposite: Brantwood House and Garden with Ruskin’s seat 2009

pathway into the life of his subjects that releases a voice. What stories they tell! Ruskin intended in Proserpina to create a new 'flora': a work drawn from science but spun into 'poetry, prophecy and religion'. Looking at Alex's work these past months; I have felt as if Proserpina – abandoned by Ruskin – had been restarted. Proserpina herself has indeed begun her journey back from that dark underworld into the light. Howard Hull Director, Brantwood.

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The Art of Cyanotype The Trace Jaromir Jedlinski

Alexander Hamilton, the artist whom I have known

I have had numerous meetings with Alex

for a couple of years has been getting ready over

(sometimes together with others, too), we had

the last year [2009-10] to show his work at the

many conversations and discussions – in Warsaw,

Muzalewska Gallery in Poznań, Poland. It is going

Poznań, Edinburgh, Glasgow. We got acquainted

to be a show about nature – about personal nature,

or reactivated individual connections and mutual

too. This fairy tale-like

friendships. We have shared or exchanged our

exposition has been dedicated by the artist to

concerns in different fields – art, history, geography.

Hanna Muzalewska, the gallery's owner. The show

Together we visited ‘no-man's-lands’ in Scotland.

is devoted to the time Alex spent together with

Alex together with Hanna wandered in the woods

Hanna (they seem to be kindred spirits) in War-

in Poland. I discussed with Alex the work and

saw, Poznań, and also in Edinburgh, where he has

attitude of Joseph Beuys, Stefan and Franciszka

lived and worked for most of his adult life.

Themerson, Tadeusz Kantor, Marek Chlanda,

At the same time the exhibited works are rooted

Michael Kidner. Some themes of our mutual

in the artist's work over four decades. It is a result

interests (Beuys, Themerson), of our work, as

of Hamilton's multi-directional concerns.

well as some results of the above encounters,

He tracks what is central and what is peripheral.

connections, etc., are presented in the Poznań show

The exposition is anchored in his connections and particular relation with Poland. I wish to list at least these connections. I also wish to extend, if I may, the artist's dedication. Firstly, I want to say that I understand what is peripheral in a different way from what is eccentric, and I like to think that my understanding proves to be in accord with the artist's attitude. The central seems in his approach to be mutually complemented by what is peripheral.

We already know that the artist has dedicated the exhibition to the gallery owner – Hanna Muzalewska. I hope he would not mind if I add a dedication of the whole project of ours to all of those who have been mentioned; meetings with them and the resulting relations and associations. This weave of dedications and connections, including the artist's knowledge and experiences; and also some traces of fairy tales in the worlds he is bringing to our eyes, constitute the actual

To mention a precedent: during the summer

content of the show The Trace – Walking

of 2008 we organised a presentation of

Backwards through Woodland. It brings to our

Alex's photograms complemented by Richard

consciousness the question of what is vivid and

Ashrowan's projections. The show was entitled

enduring. We encounter here traces of nature’s

Blue Flora Celtica – Kinloch Rannoch; Fingal’s

severity and of a heart enchanted by memories

Cave, and took place two years ago at the Foksal

and dreams. Hamilton’s works in this show fulfil

Gallery in Warsaw; the ideas explored then are

a function similar to that of a herbarium, whilst

more fully realised in Hamilton’s current show.

also evoking birdsong, scents, colours and the substance of a plant's sap soaked up by paper. These ephemeral traces are signs of what is everlasting.

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The Art of Cyanotype The Trace Piotr Tryjanowski

Since I remember, I have been interested in

We have already known each other for nearly

nature, which was normal for a boy from a

three years and in that time Alex has pursued

small village. I went with my grandfather to the

funding for the project carried out in Poland and

meadows, with my grandmother into the woods.

I have changed my place of work, moving from

Later when I was older I used to go on my own

the Department of Behavioural Ecology at the

to the lake and to the fields. At first they were

Adam Mickiewicz University to become Director

just observations all around, later with time my

of the Institute of Zoology at Poznań University

specialisation was born – the birds.

of Life Sciences.

Birds are the main objects of my scientific life.

My research now covers all aspects of behavioural

However, to say that I am an ornithologist is

ecology, simply dealing with everything that

probably not enough; an ornithologist simply

relates to animal life – including plant life and the

examines birds, but I also just like to watch them

functioning of ecosystems – which would once

whenever I have a free moment, everywhere;

have been quite foreign to my field of work.

at work, through a window, in a nearby park, from

It makes be glad that I can continue the Poznań

the terrace of my house; work is not only money,

studies of Heinz Sielmann, who had much in

but the most serious hobby.

common with my own aesthetic sensitivity; and it

Currently, the biggest part of my professional interests is researching the effect of climate change on living organisms, especially

has been a great joy to continue this conversation with Alex Hamilton. Biology by definition is the science of life.

phenology – the study of the seasonality of

Art touches different aspects of life, often difficult

nature. I have published many papers on this

to describe with precision, but together they form

subject, especially in British journals. Alex Hamilton

a pleasurable cocktail of all the senses.

came across one of them and so began our collaboration. The result is not only a frequent

2010

exchange of e-mails , talks and meetings, but also this exhibition.

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The Art of Cyanotype On the Edge of the World British Council Exhibition, John Hope Gateway Gallery

Artists also assume the role of modern-day explorers, making connections between ourselves and nature. For many, travel educates and informs their work. They seek to examine and understand the world around us, and they encourage us to join their personal journeys. Sarah Gillet Visual Arts Department British Council

In 2008 the artist Alexander Hamilton began

garden one can study the individual plants in a

a programme of arts-based research with the

controlled way, the plants are well documented

phenology team at The Royal Botanic Gardens

with a known cultivation history the term used

Edinburgh (RBGE). His Darwin Award was to

for this is organism phenology.

conduct a related programme of phenology based fieldwork enquiry with a centre researching evolutionary theory and biodiversity in Poland. The artworks produced in Poland were displayed as evidence of this enquiry.

In a fieldwork setting the method chosen is population phenology: plants are observed in the wild, across certain fieldwork locations. The key difference is that the plants in the wild do not usually have a known cultivation history, they may

Phenology is the study of recurring (usually

be different plants observed over a large fieldwork

seasonal) events in organisms, generally in

area. The two approaches are complementary,

relation to climate. These seasonal events –

but the scientific data is analysed in different

such as flowering, bud burst, shoot elongation,

ways. In particular data on when plants flower,

fruit development, leaf colouring and dehiscence,

does not tell us much about the detailed biology

dormancy and chilling are known as phenophases.

of the plant in question. It would not reveal the

So phenology becomes the study of phenophase

actual mechanism determining the timing of

timing.

flowering, nor would it indicate the evolutionary

The artist’s current line of enquiry is within the RBGE. The scientific justification of a botanic garden is the exploration and explanation of plant diversity. In the RBGE the prime objective of the phenological research is to measure and predict plant responses to climate change. In a botanical

advantage (if any) the plant gains by flowering at that time. To a botanist working within a controlled environment of a botanical garden this is of particular interest. These hidden aspects of phenology, need to be revealed to gain an understanding of why plants flower when they do, and to predict how individual plants are likely to react to climate change.

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Above: Dog Violet Poznań 2010

In the plant population phenology this is not

enquiries. The fieldwork studies were conducted

so clear, and the purpose of his fieldwork is to

over 3 trips in 2009 with a final trip in late 2009 to

enquire into the nature and interpretation of their

prepare and exhibit the results of the research.

data gathering, especially how they observe and record in a natural setting. The nature of gaze is central to the artist response to this method of phenological enquiry.

The artist’s method of visual recording was the cyanotype-the blue print. Apart from it’s recording qualities for this project, the cyanotype technique has an interesting historical connection to Darwin.

The artist’s enquiries were within the Department

The process was discovered by Sir John Herschel.

of Behavioural Ecology, at the Adam Mickiewicz

When HMS Beagle called in Cape Town, Captain

University, Poznań. This centre has analysed

Robert FitzRoy and the young naturalist Charles

phenological observations of the first flowering

Darwin visited Herschel on 3 June 1836. Later

of a particular woodland herb and tree species in

on, Darwin would be influenced by Herschel's

the Wielkopolska Region of Western Poland over

writings in developing his theory advanced in

a 26 year period. The centre in considering his

The Origin of Species. In the opening lines of that

request to carry out an arts enquiry into their

work, Darwin writes that his intent is "to throw

work, responded with enthusiasm; offering to take

some light on the origin of species – that mystery

the artist to particular sites, share with him their

of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our

interpretation of phenological data and provide

greatest philosophers", referring to Herschel.

him with support. The Dean of the Institute Professor Piotr Tryjanowski offered to exhibit

Phenology – Darwin Now Programme Award –

within the institute the evidence from his

British Council 2009

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The Art of Cyanotype Stromata Christine Gunn

A Journey Towards the Lost Fern Garden

Who could fail to be inspired by such a man?

of Robert Dick

It is pleasing to think that the existence of a

Alexander Hamilton is not an artist to be swayed

to ignite more than a century later, connecting

museum had allowed the spark of imagination by trends or shifts in whatever weather happens

self-taught scientist Robert Dick and young

to blow through the cultural establishment, and

artist-to-be Alexander Hamilton. As Alex left after

certainly not one to be distracted by whether or

that first visit, he agreed to keep in touch, and it

not there is a divide between art and science.

wasn’t long before he was back in Caithness,

In Alex’s work it is more a question of where does

with Robert Dick in mind. At the end of August, in

the art finish and the science begin? Or vice versa.

weather more reminiscent of a dreich November,

His delicate photograms and chromatograms are

Alex and I met up at Achvarasdal, near Reay, on

slightly eerie and mysterious – the result of a

a quest to discover Robert Dick’s fernery. Alex had

process that begins with meticulous observation

taken advice from local botanists, and the best

of plant life in its own habitat, then uses the effect

guess was that we should follow the Reay Burn.

of light itself to mark the essence of individual

Easier said than done... We set off apace – only

plants onto paper. Like both art and science, they

to get entangled in a morass of whins and newly-

generate a better understanding of the world

planted trees. Failing to live up to the irrepressible

around us.

iron stamina and willpower of Robert Dick, we

I met Alex early last year in Caithness Horizons, a museum and exhibition space in Thurso, where I have worked as education and community officer since the doors opened to the public in

well be where Dick planted his ferns for posterity to enjoy.

December 2008. Alex was looking intently at our

Did we find Robert Dick’s fern garden? Would it

display about Robert Dick, a nineteenth-century

matter if we didn’t? At heart, our journey was one

baker and self-taught botanist and geologist, who

of the imagination. Starting out with inspiration,

came to the attention of the eminent scientific

some information and a good deal of hope, we

minds of his day. As we struck up a conversation,

strode into the unknown in search of a better

I discovered that, not only did Alex already

understanding of... what? Robert Dick? Ferns?

know more than I did about Robert Dick, he

Caithness? Ourselves?

was someone who had been deeply affected by what he had learned of Robert Dick through the collection of fossils and plants he had visited as a teenager in Thurso.

94

retreated, but eventually hit our stride and arrived at Sandside Burn, and a rocky cleft which could

Above and right: Stromata exhibition Highland Tour Caithness 2011

95

Stromata Chirstine Gunn

Above: Stromata exhibition catalogue 2011

96

Opposite: Stromata Locations of Robert Dick’s Fern garden 2011

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The Art of Cyanotype Pishwanton In memory of Margaret Colquhoun Alexander Hamilton For cyanotypes that were made during a residency

This concept has been one of the keys to

at Pishwanton Wood, I sought to celebrate the

unlocking the ideas within my cyanotypes. I chose

knowledge I had gained through my friendship

an art process that would offer this partnership

with Dr Margaret Colquhoun (1947-2017). In 1996

with nature, a method that would allow the plants

her Life Science Trust purchased the wood to

to reveal themselves.

demonstrate ideas within Goethean Science. This involved a practice of learning from nature which had been initiated by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and was based on a phenomenological inquiry through art and science. Goethe sought a way to open himself to the things of nature, to listen to what they said, and to identify their core aspects and qualities. This is what can be called ‘exact sensorial imagination’. Only in the 20th century, with the philosophical articulation of phenomenology, do we have a conceptual language able to describe this approach accurately. Though there are many styles of phenomenology, its central aim, in the words of one of the principal founders, Edmund Husserl, is ‘to the things themselves’ – in other words, how would the thing studied describe itself if it had the ability to speak?

Unlike my cyanotypes made alongside plant pathologists that show plants responding to pollution, in the The Great Divide; or my detailed images made during enquiries into the Peace Rose, the Pishwanton cyanotypes were created within Pishwanton wood where my studio was located. Here, my large-scale cyanotypes were a response to the confusion and mystery – discovered in a woodland setting, where plants interact and connect with each other, all seeking their place in the sun. The task was to work the flow of the chemistry on the paper and to choose the arrangement of the plants. The effect is blurred rather than precise, created from an observational study of nature and the natural phenomena of wood. My pleasure in the making these cyanotypes has a role in presenting the magical nature of the art. Here in Pishwanton I could fully engage with the natural world around me, responding to the plants and after close observation, offer a trace of their unique existence.

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Above: Pishwanton Wood Garden shed and crook barn 2018

99

Above and right: Pishwanton cyanotype and washout room 2018

100

The Art of Cyanotype Haar Wood Sara Stevenson

In Alex Hamilton’s current venture, Haar Wood,

The five acres of Haar Wood hold a complexity of

the idea of time takes on a new importance – the

life, which makes it a natural habitat. This is as it

possibilities of the future and the possibilities of

should be. And it offers a challenge to Hamilton’s

extended study. The wood which he has bought,

new work to celebrate as well as explore the

is part of a larger piece of woodland in East

details of our relation to nature – our dependence

Lothian. Alex has chosen a tract with a broad

on the leaf and the flower, which brought us into

range of mature trees: sweet chestnut, Douglas

the world and which still support our need for

fir, oak, rowan, yew, holly – consciously planted

oxygen and food. Plants, from the tall trees to

and arriving naturally. The diversity is international,

little tufts of grass, spread before us green-gold,

and has the ecological strength that comes from

silver and blue, widening our eyes and giving

such differences living in competitive harmony.

pleasure to the mind.

It is a quiet place, away from the clamour of roads and housing, where the small birds can comment in clear air, and we can smell the trees. The land slopes into a field, which provides a swathe of

Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped,

background colour with the seasons, black earth,

arrow-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft, furrowed,

green shoot, gold grass. Around the edges the

serrated, sinulated; in whorls, in tufts, in spires,

ditches support smaller wet-loving plants. The rich

in wreaths, endlessly expressive, deceptive,

scent of meadowsweet and bluebells attracts

fantastic, never the same from the footstalk

insect life into the shade, and bumblebees burrow

to blossom; they seem perpetually to tempt

into the moss.

our watchfulness, and to take delight in outstripping our wonder. John Ruskin

Opposite: Artist Hut Haar Wood 2021

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Index All cyanotypes are unique and stored in archival boxes or held within public and private collections.

104

Title

Date

Size

Title

Date

Size

Nine Mile Burn 1 Nine Mile Burn 2

1971 1971

57x38cm 57x38cm

Stroma 1 Stroma 2 Stroma 3 Stroma 4

1973 1973 1973 1973

57x38cm 32x25cm 32x25cm 19x29cm

Bird Nest Fern 1 with pigment Bird Nest Fern 2

1989 1991

104x74cm 104x74cm

Iris 1 Iris 2 Iris 3 Iris 4 Iris 5 Iris 6

1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1992

65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 102x65cm

Rose 31 foetida bicolour Rose 32 Portland Rose 33 Du Roi Rose 34 La France Rose 35 Parson Pink Rose 36 Portland Rose 37 Du Roi Rose 38 Bourbons Rose 39 Mme CarolineTestout Rose 40 Ophelia Rose 41 La France Rose 42 La France Rose 43 Gigantea

1994 1995 1993 1994 1994 1994 1995 1995 1993 1994 1993 1994 1994

65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm

Tulip Petals 1 Tulip Petals 2 Tulip Petals 3 Tulip Petals 4 Tulip Petals 5

1990 1990 1992 1992 1992

65x50cm 65x50cm 60x44cm 63x47cm 56x54cm

Tulip 1 Tulip 2 Tulip 3

1990 1990 1990

65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm

Dandelion 1 Dandelion 2 Dandelion 3

1991 1991 1991

38x28cm 38x28cm 38x28cm

Poppy Spiral 1

1992

104x74cm

Rose 1 Bourbons Rose 2 Margaret McGredy Rose 3 Parson’s Pink China Rose 4 Peace Rose 5 Gigantea Rose 6 Mme Caroline Testout Rose 7 Slaters Crimson China Rose 8 Foetida Rose 9 Parson Pink China Rose 10 Parson Pink China Rose 11 Bourbons Rose 12 Slaters Crimson China Rose 13 Gigantea Rose 14 Joanna Hill Rose 15 Charles P.Kilham Rose 16 Bourbons Rose 17 Mme Caroline Testout Rose 18 La France Rose 19 Ophelia Rose 20 Mme Caroline Testout Rose 21 Bourbons Rose 22 Humes Blush Rose 23 Soleil d’Or Rose 24 Margaret McGredy Rose 25 Du Roi Rose 26 Parson Pink China Rose 27 La France Rose 28 Gallica Rose 29 Boubons Rose 30 Humes Blush

1990 1990 1990 1992 1992 1992 1992 1993 1994 1995 1994 1993 1992 1993 1993 1992 1992 1993 1994 1993 1993 1994 1993 1992 1994 1994 1993 1995 1993 1994

65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm 65x50cm

Gladiolus 1

1992

64x50cm

Lily 1

1992

63x49cm

Dahlia 1

1995

63x49cm

Narcissus 1

1997

48x42cm

Poppy 1 Poppy 2

1994 1995

63x50cm 63x50cm

Glenfinlas Wild Strawberry Glenfinlas Herb Robert Glenfinlas Wild garlic 1 Glenfinlas Honeysuckle 1

2008 2008 2008 2008

32x50cm 25x32cm 63x50cm 63x50cm

Daffodil 1 Daffodil 2

2009 2009

32x50cm 32x50cm

Proserpina 1

2009

25x32cm

Crocus 1

2009

25x32cm

Snowdrop 1

2009

25x32cm

Nettle 1 Nettle 2 Nettle 3

2009 2009 2009

25x32cm 25x32cm 25x32cm

Dog Violet Poznań

2010

25x32cm

Pishwanton 1 Pishwanton 2 Pishwanton 3 Pishwanton 4

2018 2018 2018 2018

83x150cm 83x150cm 83x150cm 83x150cm

The Cyanotypes 1970s Scotland

XXX 105

Nine Mile Burn 1 1971

Nine Mile Burn 2 1971

Stroma 1 1973

Stroma 2 1973

Stroma 3 1973

Stroma 4 1973

The Cyanotypes 1980s – 1990s USA France Scotland

111

Bird Nest Fern 1 with pigment 1989

Iris 1 1990 Iris 3 1990

Iris 2 1990 Iris 4 1990

Iris 5 1990

Tulip Petals 1 1990

Tulip Petals 2 1990

Rose 1 Bourbons 1990 Rose 2 Margaret McGredy 1990

Rose 3 Parson’s Pink China 1990

Tulip 1 1990

Tulip 2 1990 Tulip 3 1990

Dandelion 1 1991

Dandelion 2 1991

Dandelion 3 1991

Poppy Spiral 1 1992

Rose 4 Peace 1992

Gladiolus 1 1992

Iris 6 1992

Lily 1 1992

Narcissus 1 1997

Tulip Petal 3 1992

Tulip Petal 4 1992

Tulip Petal 5 1992

Poppy 1 1994

Poppy 2 1995

Rose 5 Gigantea 1992

Rose 6 Mme Caroline Testout 1992

Rose 7 Slaters Crimson China 1992

Rose 8 Foetida 1993

Rose 9 Parson Pink China 1994

Rose 10 Parson Pink China 1995

The Peace Rose can trace back its family members for at least two hundred years. Its creation is the result of several generations of rose breeders’ efforts united by a common goal of finding a perfect rose through controlled selection. I started my Peace Rose project in 1991 in France. I selected roses that made up the family tree of the Peace Rose as established

Rose 11 Bourbons 1994

Rose 6 Mme Caroline Testout 1992

Rose 4 Peace 1992

Rose 12 Slaters Crimson China 1993

Rose 7 Slaters Crimson China 1992

Rose 13 Gigantea 1992

Rose 14 Joanna Hill 1993

Rose 15 Charles P.Kilham 1993

by Meilland. The story behind the artwork is an exploration of male control (rose breeders are generally male) and plant manipulation, the search for perfection. But plant perfection is all about imperfection, the beauty of the wild rose. To achieve all year-round blooms requires the use of modern systems for plant cultivation and, with it, the use of pesticides and the possible consequences on health.

Rose 16 Bourbons 1992

Rose 8 Foetida 1994

Rose 17 Mme Caroline Testout 1992

Rose 18 La France 1993

Rose 19 Ophelia 1994

Rose 20 Gallica 1995

Rose 21 Bourbons 1994

Rose 9 Parson Pink China 1995

Rose 22 Humes Blush 1994

Rose 23 Soleil d’Or 1993

Rose 24 Margaret McGredy 1992

Rose 25 Du Roi 1994

Rose 26 Parson Pink China 1994

Rose 27 La France 1993

Rose 28 Gallica 1995

Rose 29 Bourbons 1993

Rose 3 Parson’s Pink China 1990

Rose 30 Humes Blush 1994

Rose 32 Portland 1994

Rose 31 Rosa foetida bicolour 1994

Rose 10 Parson Pink China 1994

Rose 33 Du Roi 1993

Rose 34 La France 1994

Rose 35 Parson Pink 1994

Rose 36 Portland 1994

Rose 37 Du Roi 1995

Rose 38 Bourbons 1995

Rose 39 Mme Caroline Testout 1993

Rose 5 Gigantea 1992

Rose 40 Ophelia 1994

Rose 41 La France 1993

Rose 1 Bourbons 1990

Rose 42 La France 1994

Rose 43 Gigantea 1994

Bird Nest Fern 2 1991

Iris 6 1992

The Cyanotypes 2000s England Scotland Poland

149

Glenfinlas wild garlic 2008

Glenfinlas honeysuckle 2008

Daffodil 2009

Daffodil 2009

Proserpina 1 2009 Crocus 1 2009

Snowdrop 1 2009

Nettle 1 2009

Nettle 2 2009

The Cyanotypes 2010 onwards Scotland

159

Pishwanton 1 2018

Pishwanton 2 2018

Pishwanton 3 2018

Pishwanton 4 2018

Biography

Alexander Hamilton grew up in the English Midlands, and Caithness in Scotland, before studying drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA). In 1970, as a gallery assistant during Strategy Get Arts, he came under the influence of the participating artists. Following graduation from ECA in 1972, he spent six months recording plants on the uninhabited island of Stroma in Caithness. This began his 50-year journey of creating unique plant-based cyanotypes. In the 1990s, his cyanotypes were widely exhibited in galleries including but not limited to the Photographers Gallery, London, Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh and the Cambridge Dark Room. From 2000, he worked on residencies, exhibitions, and public art projects, including the Seed Chamber in Dundee and the creation of a multi-screen moving image installation based on natural landscapes, (Hamilton&Ashrowan). These works were exhibited at the Threshold Artspace in Perth and the Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge. In 2002, he took part in the Great Divide exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, exhibiting cyanotypes exploring plants and air pollution. In 2008, he had a major exhibition of his cyanotypes, Blue Flora Celtica, at Warsaw’s Foksal Gallery. In 2009, he completed a one-year residency programme funded by The Leverhulme Trust at Brantwood. The cyanotypes, responding to Ruskin’s ideas on ecology and botany, were shown at Brantwood House, Lancaster University and The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. In 2010, he completed a Darwin Now project funded by the British Council in conjunction with the Centre of Behavioural Ecology, University of Poznań. The cyanotypes were shown at Poznań’s Muzalewska Gallery. Stromata, a touring exhibition of his cyanotypes, was presented by the Highland Council in 2011. In 2013, he showed cyanotype work at Edinburgh College of Art, as part of the Past Forward Symposium into Alternative Processes in Contemporary Photography. The same year, he also participated in a show called Blueprints at Street Level Glasgow. His recent practice has concentrated on creating public art projects for hospitals in Scotland, inspired by his plant cyanotypes. He lives and works in Edinburgh and is Chair and Co-editor of Studies in Photography books and journals.

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Timeline

1950: Born Chapel Brampton England 1962: Moves to Brough, Dunnet Head Caithness 1968: Studies drawing & painting at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) 1970: Studio assistant for Strategy: Get Arts. 1972: Graduates from ECA – Ivy diploma show gifted to Tate Britain. 1973: Residency on the Island of Stroma 1975: Works within Community Arts 1988: Moves to New York, USA 1990: New York Botanic Garden – Darwin Now exhibition 1990: Moves to Paris - cyanotype print commissioned by the Galerie Antoine Candau, Paris 1991: Returns to Scotland 1992: Exhibition at The Photographers Gallery London – cyanotypes 1995: The National Museum of Photography – Exhibition – Heaven’s Embroidered Cloths 1995: Fotofeis, European touring exhibition – Shadows in the Water 1996: The Cambridge Dark Room – Four Flowers cyanotypes 1996: La Menta el’Immagine Gallery, Rome – cyanotypes 1996: Chair of Stills Gallery, Edinburgh 1997: Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh – Four Flowers cyanotypes 1999: The Stills Gallery, Edinburgh – cyanotypes 2000: Public Art programmes 2002: Fruitmarket exhibition: The Great Divide, cyanotypes - plants and pollution 2008: Foksal Gallery, Warsaw – Blue Flora Celtica cyanotypes 2008: Edinburgh Art Festival – Glenfinlas Cyanotypes 2009: Brantwood House Residency – Sensorium, Pictures from Nature’s Laboratory 2009: Muzalewska Gallery, Poznań – Poland, The Trace exhibition 2011: Timespan, Helmsdale, Stromata exhibition 2012: Street Level Gallery Glasgow, Blueprints exhibition 2017: Chair and Co-Editor of Studies in Photography 2019: Pishwanton Residency – Pishwanton cyanotypes 2022: In Search of the Blue Flower: Alexander Hamilton and The Art of Cyanotype

165

Publications

Catalogues, Exhibitions and Public Art projects

2008 The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes

2016 Votaries of the Blue Flower

ISBN 978-0-9560152-0-4-

University of Edinburgh

Sun Pictures – Exhibition

Edinburgh Art Festival

Jane McKie and Alexander Hamilton

2007 Contact Rushes / Poprzez Portret, Fabryka

2015 Dignified Spaces

Sztuki / Narodowe Centrum Kultury – Exhibition

New South Glasgow Hospital – Public Art

catalogue

2013 Blueprint: Photography and Engineering

2005 A Landscape Symphony in 22 Movements

ISBN 978-0-9569054-6-8

Threshold Artspace – Exhibition catalogue

Glasgow Print studio and Street Level Photoworks – Exhibition 2011 Stromata: Touring exhibition catalogue Highland Council 2010 Place Upon the Horizon A permanent public artwork. Ruth Baker & Niall Macdonald

2005 Threshold, Threshold Artspace Project catalogue – Public Art 2005 The Blue Turbine Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire – Public Art 2005 The Windmills of Innerleithen Exhibition catalogue – Public Art

ISBN 13978-09553127-0-0-

2004 Urban Air Pollution, Bioindication and

Interview with Alexander Hamilton

Environmental Awareness

2010 On the Edge of the World British Council – Exhibition ISBN 978-086355-637-1 2010 The Trace Galeria Muzalewska – Exhibition 2008 Blue Flora Celtica – Kinloch Rannoch – Fingal’s Cave, Foksal Gallery, Poland, – Joint exhibition catalogue ISBN 978-83-60623-35-0

Editors Andreas Klumpp, Wolfgang Ansel, Gabriele Klumpp. 2004 Cuvillier Verlag. Gottingen ISBN 3-86537-078-0 1995 Four Flowers Cyanotypes Fotofeis touring exhibition ISBN 0952139642 1995 Shadows in the Water Fotofeis touring exhibition ISBN 09521396 1 8 1993 Scottish International Festival of Photography Fotofeis 1993 ISBN 095213960X

166

Books, Articles

References

2021 Surveying the Anthropocene –

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/

Environment and photography now

tate-papers/31/beuys-demarco-strategy-get-arts

edited by Patricia Macdonald

https://ashrowan.com/millais-hamilton-

Studies in Photography

ashrowan-rebecca-bell/

ISBN 978-1-8383822-3-0 2020 Strategy Get Arts – 35 Artists Who Broke the Rules edited by Christian Weikop Studies in Photography ISBN 978-1-8383822-0-9 2018 Konteksky: Archiwum Karola Tchorka and

Further reading on cyanotypes Mike Ware, Cyanomicon. History, Science and Art of Cyanotype: Photographic Printing in Prussian Blue, https://www.mikeware.co.uk/downloads/ Cyanomicon.pdf

Mariusza Tchorka 2016 Plant Exploring The Botanical World Phaidon Press Ltd ISBN 978-0714871486

Leaves Journal Articles ‘Plants as effective bioindicators of urban air pollution’ Leaves, 2021 ‘Goethe and Ruskin talking about plants’ Leaves, 2020 Studies in Photography Winter 2017 AH interview by Jane McKie

167

Contributors

Sara Stevenson

Jaromir Jedlinski

Editor Leaves and

Retired Director

Retired Head of Photography

Muzeum Sztuki (Art Museum)

National Galleries Scotland

Łódź

Julie Lawson

Christine Gunn

Chief Curator

Museum Assistant

SNPG National Galleries Scotland

North Coast Visitor Centre

Edinburgh

Caithness

Richard Ovenden OBE

Mike Ware

Bodley’s Librarian

Scientific Advisor to the

Bodleian Libraries Head,

National Gallery of Art in Washington DC

Gardens, Libraries, & Museums University of Oxford Christian Weikop Professor in Art History Edinburgh College of Art University of Edinburgh James Berry Conservation Officer National Galleries Scotland Gemma Rolls-Bentley Chief Curator Avante Arte Piotr Tryjanowski Professor of Zoology and Research Professor at the Centre for Behavioural Ecology, University of Poznań

168

Euan McArthur Retired Senior Lecturer University of Dundee Howard Hull Director Brantwood House John Ruskin Vanessa Sellars Director of the Humanities Institute New York Botanical Garden