INGE PANNEELs


Working Perspectives



Peebles 2015



Buchan Way was a series of work informed by the literary legacy of John Buchan. The Working Perspectives project was a collaborative project between artist collective Crossing Borders and Peebles Creative Place project which took place in 2014. Twelve artists were paired with ten diverse working places. The residency and research undertaken at the John Buchan Story, a small Museum in Peebles which houses a collection of his works, informed this series of ‘glass sketches’, smaller works which relate to quotes from his books. Buchan was a prolific writer but the work focuses on three key books; Witchwood, Thirty Nine Steps and Sick Heart River.



The Thirty Nine Steps



“39 Steps” is John Buchan’s most famous book and crosses the UK. It is informed by Buchan’s work as a diplomat and is reported to have inspired Ian Fleming’s 007 character: “For there were no stars to steer by, and I had to do the best I could from my memory of the map”
​(The Thirty Nine Steps, John Buchan, 1915)



Witchwood



“Witchwood” is set in 17th century during the time of political and religious upheaval in Scotland. The landscape of the Scottish Borders is evoked and described as the almost mythical Woods of Caledon, of which there are but scant traces in the Scottish landscape left. It is this mysterious, evocative green lushness of the Silva Caledonia, I tried to encapsulate in these pieces. Buchan understood the restorative power of the landscape, of being in the landscape. Buchan’s’ novels, describe the landscape with a keen eye for detail, and wonder bringing the landscape alive, and the Borders landscape in particular. It was one of Buchan’s own favourite novels.

“The great wood seemed now to be moving thing, a flood which lapped and surged and which might at any moment overflow the sandpit which was Woodilee”


Buchan Way



Sick Heart River was written at the end of Buchan’s life echoed in the reflective style of writing. It is this melancholy which is reflected in the key piece of the series. Buchan Way is a multi-layered map that reflects on Buchan’s life as a Presbyterian minister’s son into the heart of the British establishment. His rich and well-travelled career is plotted by the co-ordinates of key geographical locations and the Buchan Way route, a walk which takes you through the Borders landscape Buchan described so vividly in his work, is topped by the crumbling glass boat with its flag half-mast but still defiantly flying…; “He would not sit down and twiddle his thumbs and await death. His ship, since it was doomed, should go down in action with every flag flying” (Sick Heart River, john Buchan, 1941)​



The Peebles of John Buchan



This project lead to a further commission by Eastgate Theatre in 2015, to commission a paper map to accompany an audio map which takes visitors on a tour around Peebles, bringing the work of Buchan come alive in the townscape.


Link to eastgatearts.com

INGE PANNEELS


PRIVACY POLICY + TERMS & CONDITIONS
PHOTOS: KEVIN GREENFIELD
WEBSITE: LUNNCREATIVE

© 2018 by Inge Panneels. All Rights Reserved.