RETURN TO RECENT WORKS
the flax sower’s cloak & break, rett, scutch, heckle, 2021
Details
Rett, Break, Scutch, Heckle
Digital inkjet print on A4 New Zealand flax paper
The Flax Sower’s Cloak
Digital inkjet print on 4 x pieces of A3 flax tow paper
Photography: Keith Hunter
Links
Art Lates - 2 (at 44 mins)
Patricia Fleming Projects
Botanics
Doris Press Review
Hyperallergic Review
Map Magazine Review
DESCRIPTION
An exhibition of new works exploring the lifecycle of flax (Linum usitatissimum) and considering the symbiotic nature of its nurture, evolving the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s 350-year relationship with the plant.
Spun flax fibres produce linen, one of the most ancient forms of textile. Prized too for its seeds’ medicinal properties, flax featured in Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis, the first catalogue of a plant collection in Scotland, which listed 3,000 plants growing at Edinburgh’s Physic Garden in 1670 – later to become RBGE. In 2021, Borland planted flax at RBGE, continuing the contemporary and historical cycles embedded in this project. In Relation to Linum is an intimate reconnection with the ecological heritage and future of growing and making practices, and their associations with care.
Extract from RBGE Guide
Rett, Break, Scutch, Heckle
These terms are used in the processing of pulled flax to obtain the fibres required for spinning, marking the end of its’ relationship to horticulture and beginning a new one towards the production of linen (see Process) Retting – dried flax is laid out on the grass, usually in autumn, to allow the action of micro-organisms and moisture to rot away much of the plants tough cellular tissues, revealing and releasing the fibres. The next three steps make up the dressing of flax. Breaking – The flax is dried again after retting and the woody stem and inner core removed completely, first through breaking it away using a flax brake, a rudimentary piece of equipment which crushes the flax between 2 blunt pieces of wood, breaking away the unwanted, hard parts. Scutching – using a board and simple wooden sword, any remaining pieces of stem are removed. Heckling – the fibres are combed out, removing tangles and remaining pieces of stalk, successively finer-toothed combs are used to leave long smooth fibres known as ‘line’. The shorter fibres which are removed in the process can be spun for rougher fibres and rope or used, as in the exhibition, to make paper.
These processes, developed for production of linen from Linum usitatissimum, were exported to New Zealand/ Aotearoa along with many Scottish flax workers, to process Harakeke, the New Zealand flax plant Phormium Tenax, primarily for use in ropes. The industry remained until the early 20th Century.
The Flax Sower’s Cloak
While wearing a cloak of rough linen to record her flax growing and processing movements, the artist considers a portrait of the botanist on James Cook’s first voyage, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) who wears a Maori ceremonial cloak acquired in New Zealand. The cloak’s material is described as ‘white silky flax’ but is actually fibre from Harakeke, the New Zealand flax plant Phormium Tenax, which is entirely unrelated to Linum.