Moffat PATHS and photographs provide a feast this weekend.
May 26, 2012 by Grace Franklin · Leave a Comment
One of Jennifer's images from PATHS at Moffat
Three minutes from the M74 in Moffat, you’ll find a spectacular exhibition and cultural gathering which launches this weekend – Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May.
Professor Richard Demarco CBE formally opens PATHS, a suite of 12 photographs taken by Jennifer Gough-Cooper at Little Sparta, the garden created by Scottish poet, Ian Hamilton Finlay. The black and white photographs will be on show till 12 July at the Moffat Gallery.
When Jennifer first set eyes on Little Sparta in Dunsyre in the late 1950s, it had a solitary tree and Ian’s wife Sue had started to shape a small garden near the house. Ian had created a lochan by damming streams from the moor and had a tiny boat which he used to sail across the water with his children.
After she had taken early morning pictures and was looking at them with Ian, Jennifer said she’d been struck by the variety of paths in the garden. Immediately, Ian invited her to collaborate in an exhibition with him at Kloster Schoenthal in Switzerland. Out of that came a book PATHS published by Wild Hawthorn Press.
Another part of the Moffat Book Events – entitled ‘Beyond the Garden Gate,’ will be a symposium on Saturday 26 May at 2pm in the Town Hall at Moffat, asking: ‘What are gardens for?’ Anna Pavord, author of the book ‘The Tulip’; Richard Wheeler, National Trust garden history specialist; Janet Wheatcroft of Craigieburn Garden and photographer and author Jennifer will all be fielding questions from the audience.
Photographer and artist extraordinaire, Jennifer.
On Sunday 27 May at 11am in Craigieburn Garden, Moffat, Jennifer and Richard will be discussing KIRSTENBOSCH – Jennifer’s black and white photographs of Kirstenbosch, South Africa’s National Botanical Gardens. Those images formed the inaugural art exhibition at the National Botanic Garden of Wales and will be shown in Moffat in Craigieburn Café and Gallery launching on Saturday 26 May through till Wednesday 27 June but note the premises are closed on Mondays.
Jennifer’s latest book, has a multitude of colour photographs and is entitled ‘Origins – song of Nooitgedacht, a remote valley in the Karoo’. Recently published in Cape Town to great acclaim, this work of art depicting the beauty of South Africa, will be available in Moffat. For a visual feast, fine conversation and beautiful books, Moffat is the place to be this weekend.
