Trails
IRENE
IRENE, sited at Lenzie commemorates women in health and medicine who have associations with East Dunbartonshire — through education, working life or residence. While there are many stories locally, many tales, there are few public dedications to women. Healthcare has long been a key industry for this area, from the large psychiatric hospital that occupied the Woodilee site for generations to the care homes and doctor’s surgeries that pepper Lenzie, Kirkintilloch, Westerton, Bearsden and Milngavie now. The mainstay of these workforces both then and now are women. Through a number of meetings with young women in local secondary schools and through word of mouth in the area, Jacqueline interviewed a wide range of women with an incredible range of life stories and professional knowledge. These interviews and archival research provided a long list of 100 associated women. Jacqueline could easily have made a list of 500 names and with such a wide range of skills, experience and history going into this list, the names used for the sited works are a generic reference point, using first names that appeared frequently in the research – not designed as a reference to any specific individual but a nod to just how many women there are. Three works have been realised and are made from powder coated aluminium and steel, and are sited close to areas where health care institutions were (or are) located. Each of the sites have been chosen to allow the works to be ‘discovered’; they are tucked away on footpaths and local walking routes. IRENE, occupies the Lenzie site, in a small clearing under the route of the original Spider Bridge that connected Woodilee Hospital to Kirkintilloch. This bridge was used by many staff who lived in Kirkintilloch and worked at the hospital. Other works are sited at Westerton and Lennoxtown.