A Sense of Bishop Loch

‘A Sense of Bishop Loch’ was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and commissioned by the Seven Lochs Wetland Park and Forestry and Land Scotland in association with Platform. Artists Audrey O’Brien and Alice Dansey-Wright with Forest Ranger, Eilidh Malcolm worked closely with the local community, Abbey Court Residential Home and Lochend Community High School in Easterhouse to explore their memories of the Loch and to create new experiences through multi-sensory walks and activities. Their journeys have inspired a bespoke creative guide – launching soon 2021. 

A note on the photograph –

A tree branch with a peculiar shape provoked a scientific study into the shapes, forms and patterns that occur in nature. The ranger gave us the name for this beautiful shape, its known as a whorl.

In botany a whorl means: a set of leaves, flowers, or branches springing from the stem at the same level and encircling it. Nature produces many whorls. Take a look at the flowers, plants and trees to observe one. In art, a whorl can illustrate a coil, spiral shapes or concentric circles. An endless pattern in progress that can grow and grow. It is an ancient shape, as humans have demonstrated from Neolithic rock carvings.

We hope this creative guide will help others have their own moments of discovery. Consider your engagements with these activities in expanding art, nature and living memory of Bishop’s Loch.