Fiona Robertson is a Glasgow based artist and Head of Fourth Year Painting & Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art. Here, she details her most recent project, The Green Man.

Ideas involving chance, chaos and the subconscious are central to all my work. The original source for the work is often rooted in a dream image, a piece of writing or in a chance encounter. Like the art that inspires me, I draw from an eclectic range of sources including personal iconography and primitive ancient cultures. I draw inspiration from a Dadaist approach to art and the ideas associated with a number of modern art movements of the early 20th century: Expressionism, Spiritualism and Primitivism. My work employs a range of media including drawing, painting and video, and consistently engages with an Expressionistic lexis that I feel is situated within the tradition of the carnivalesque in art.

Drawing is often at the inception of a body of work, as a way of pulling together different strands of my thought and practice. Installation – and more recently film- plays a vital role in the resolution of my work. Over the past 4 years I have been exploring more closely the ritualistic and performative aspects of my work in creating site-specific sculpture and film. I view the sculpture and performance/film as a poetic metaphor, an expressive gesture in the tradition of Dada. I am interested in the idea of ‘gesture’ across a range of mediums and in particular the writings of Antonin Artaud when he talks about the gap ‘between thought and gesture’.

The Green Man in the Necropolis is part of an ongoing project and the 3rd grass head sculpture I have made. My intention was to build a large sculpture situated within and created out of the existing urban landscape: a large pagan-like head covered in grass, which would ideally be situated in a public site in the East End of Glasgow. The juxtaposition between the ‘modern’, post-industrial cityscape and the pre-modern, counter-rational totem-like work is fundamental to my project; but should not be seen as an alien intrusion, rather a codification, an expression of tensions already evident in the existing geography of the city, both physical, psychological and mythic.

My original concept (inspired by a dream) was that the head would form the stage for a performance, where characters inhabited the space underground, emerging to the surface intermittently. Building an underground complex large enough to hold multiple characters simultaneously proved to be too ambitious within the constraints of my budget; as an alternative I constructed the original head with a tunnel running through the mouth. I built a proto-type for the sculpture in my garden and filmed some short sequences – through this iterative process I modified costumes and simplified the narrative in the final version of the film ‘GREEN HEAD’ (2014).

In 2013, Kennyhill Allotments in Riddrie agreed that I could a use vacant ground for the duration of the summer and it was here that I filmed “GREEN HEAD”. Placing my project within an existing community, such as an allotment or the Necropolis, imbeds it further in the ‘conventional’ city and exposes wider human strata to the artwork; blurring the lines between audience and participant. The interaction with the public while building on these sites was a rewarding experience and allowed the works to become more autonomous as they evolve and are embraced by to the communities they are placed in.

Earlier this year I was approached by Ruth Johnston from The Friends of the Necropolis and asked if I could adapt the project and build a similar construction in the Necropolis Wildlife garden. As part of the Wildlife garden the sculpture was used as a base for planting and as such creates a ‘Green Man’ in Glasgow’s Necropolis. Traditionally the Green Man is defined as a sculpture, drawing or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves. Representatives from TVC Conservation Volunteers Scotland helped in planting of wild flowers alongside local school children from Haghillpark Primary School.

I began construction in July 2014. The sculpture was to be slightly larger than the one in the allotment site and was located on a steep bank. This was challenging in terms of the build but gave the work a great vantage point. I built wooden templates as steps to stop the soil sliding. I also used stones and wire to construct the foundation. Modeling the features from mud proved a comfortable way to work, akin to making small-scale sculptures. After laying the turf some planting took place and some more planting is scheduled for autumn. I am currently working on a group of drawings and paintings in relation to the project; a publication will be launched later in the year alongside a screening of the film.

See The Green Man at the Glasgow Necropolis on 21 August. For more information see the event page.

The project is supported The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow City Council, Dennistoun Community Council, Dennistoun Conservation Society and Foundation Scotland.

More: Website | Green Man Project | Facebook

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