portrait of Sappho

early music

a slow air

an exhibition by Thomas A Clark and Diane Howse

29th January to 21st March, 2017

The National Centre for Early Music, York

broken cumulus

a slow air

A Slow Air

Thomas A Clark
Diane Howse

Harewood, 2016                £12 plus postage


In fiddle music, the slow air is usually intended for listening rather than dancing. Principally a means of expression rather than virtuosity (although with frequent virtuosic embellishment) it situates the individual within the tradition. Slow airs may be laments or pastorals.

hurry slowly

pause

Hurry Slowly, October 2016
Obu Workers Welfare & Cultural Hall
Obu, Aichi, Japan

longing

an insignificant object beautifully wrapped

with thanks to Eiji Watanabe

Eclogue

at Little Sparta, September, photograph by Iain Morrison

"I imagine the sheepfold as standing in the meadow grass,
but it might be necessary to add a slab or slabs at the gate,
and even forming a sort of path near the wall, inside. (On
a wet day it does not take long for the grass to be tramped
into mud.) These slabs could be of selected, very flat 'wild'
stones, or possibly riven slate, like the stones which bear
the lettering. If there is a slab or slabs at the gate, we might
use others to form a sort of pastoral approach-path. (Anything
which dovetails in an added artifact is helpful. Nothing looks
worse than an added object abandoned in isolation in a natural
setting. Trees or bushes judiciously placed could be beautiful too."

Ian Hamilton Finlay to Thomas A Clark, January 1998

In 1973, I made a small card placed in an envelope, with
the words "folding the last sheep", the title of an etching
by Samuel Palmer. When the card was taken out of its
envelope and unfolded, it could stand up in the shape of
a sheep fold. It was intended as a modest elegy for the whole
pastoral tradition.

Ian liked the card and pasted it into his scrapbook (the
ultimate sign of approval) and 25 years later had the idea
to actually build the sheepfold, for a garden festival in Germany
and for Little Sparta. It seems the slabs were not necessary !

With thanks to Sharing Little Sparta Residency Programme
2016. This year's residents were Sarah Rose, Peter Manson
and Thomas A Clark

the grove of delight

the grove of delight
(doire sholais)

at Harewood House, Yorkshire
until October 2016

cumulus

the earthly paradise

deep blue