Page 60 - Art First: Helen MacAlister: At the Foot o’ Yon Excellin’ Brae

Sainte-Chapelle ‘Hugh MacDiarmid’s rhymed version in English has been
1
sand-blasted glass, 2008, 105 x 148mm, edition of 3 widely admired, and thought to convey the impression of
a tremendous and unique work; but even this excellent
attempt bears hardly more relation to the original Gaelic
than the view of the stained glass from outside bears to the
sensation of gazing up from inside the Sainte Chapelle.’ 2
The work is therefore the aspiration of seeing
from within. (The glass itself is Scottish Heather by colour-
name and English Muffle by type).

1 Of Alasdair MacMhaighistir Alasdair’s Bìrlinn Chlann Ràghnaill
2 A Clear Voice – Douglas Young, p92

BÀN : DEARG Bàn means white and dearg is red.
sand-blasted glass, 2009, 105 x 148mm (halves = 105 x 74mm), ‘Bàn is the left-handed of the furrow in
edition of 2 ploughing, distinguished from dearg
handed side. Bàn is empty or waste, as an unplowed field,’
Position: white on left + red on right leaving dearg describing tilled + turned – things seen and
thought of in direct visual terms.
R.B.Cunninghame Graham told of a character
in a short story, that by, ‘Not having Gaelic, he had lost the
gift of picturesque expression.’

1 Gaelic Words & Expressions from South Uist & Eriskay – Fr. Allan
McDonald, p256
2 Scottish Stories – R.B.Cunninghame Graham; (A Retainer) p59 56

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