Trails
Kilmardinny Tree
Kilmardinny Tree, realised by artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, explores nature as both subject and medium. Sourcing a fallen tree in the grounds of Kilmardinny, Elpida reinvents and gives it new form, inverted and using the skills of the conservator, carefully guilded in gold leaf. As part of the process, the artist worked with a group of volunteers to prepare and create the work, which pays reference to the areas rich calico industry and Robert Dalglish, a Member of Parliament for Glasgow, who acquired Kilmardinny in 1853, and was head of the extensive calico printing firm of Dalglish Falconer & Company. Kilmardinny House is one of this area’s most iconic buildings, and the radiant, gilded tree, draws viewers in from a distance, offering a dramatic addition to the landscape, as well as intricate details based on archival pattern books of calico. These patterns refer to a design work from an existing piece, currently at the Auld Kirk Museum, believed to be the only remaining original, relic of calico printing. Local volunteers, trained by Elpida in stencil-making and gilding, worked with her to gild the patterns directly on to the fallen tree. The final work offers reflection on ideas of ownership, curation and patronage, as well as the use of nature as resource and decoration as well as our interaction with and impact upon it. For Elpida, the very act of the tree being ‘uprooted and rooted again’ is a conceptual act; like a second chance. Just as the living trees surrounding the work will continue to grow, the inverted form of the Kilmardinny tree, will also continue to age and decay, its patina of gold leaf deepening, its patterns redolent of the area’s rich textile past.