RETURN TO COLLABORATIVE WORKS
Daughters of decayed tradesmen, 2015
Details
Two transcribed oral histories, translated into the form of Jacquard pattern cards, steel, cloth tape.
Installation details variable.
Photography: Stuart Armitt
Video Documentary: click here (opens in new window)
DESCRIPTION
Suspended through the three storeys of the derelict watchtower in New Calton Burial Ground, Christine Borland and Brody Condon’s Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen is created from hundreds of Jacquard loom punchcards laced together to form a series of long looping arcs. First invented in the eighteenth century, Jacquard weaving looms used thousands of perforated punchcards to translate complex designs and patterns into high quality fabrics. Used into the late twentieth century, Jacquard weaving with its very large-scale looms has now migrated away from Scotland and Britain in all but a few instances. As objects, the cards represent an important meeting point for Borland and Condon – for Borland the cards carry strong childhood memories of visiting her father at his work in an Ayrshire lace factory; for Condon, who first came to critical attention for a series of works which modified computer games, they are the foundation stones of modern day computer programming.
Extract, EAF Guide
research/process
Borland and Condon were drawn to the multiplicity of meanings in the term ‘decayed’ (encompassing everything from unemployment to death), and the site chosen for their installation offered a resonant context for an extended reflection on decay and dereliction. The tower which housed their work, belongs to a type of architecture which emerged in the early nineteenth century in an attempt to address a growing problem with body snatchers. Until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832 (which put an end to the lucrative market for bodies to be sold to Anatomy Schools), the building allowed the resident caretaker to watch over recently interred bodies.
Encoded in the punchcards (after having been translated into binary code) are the oral histories from two of the last surviving alumnae of Edinburgh’s Trades Maiden Hospital, an institution founded in 1704 by Edinburgh Trades (the society representing and controlling the interests of the artisan classes) to provide board and education for the daughters of ‘decayed’ (in this context deceased or fallen on hard times) tradesmen, which finally closed in 1971, although the foundation continues to exist as a grant-giving body.
Borland and Condon’s installation draws on all these associations to remind us of the essential relationship between decay and a profoundly human urge to record and preserve. A beautifully unravelled scroll, their installation bears witness to an institution that no longer exists; it records a history that is yet to be written, using a technology evolved for weaving, once one of Scotland’s most important industries, now all but defunct. The artists feel a profound connection to the performative action of making something by hand; and the way in which the crafted object (as much as any headstone) can stand as a testament to an individual’s actions, as well as human existence itself. Their installation crafted from punchcards not only records the individual stories of the Trades Maidens alumnae; it celebrates the performance inherent in gathering and recording histories.
Extract from EAF Guide
