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Notes
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'The Listening Place' is located on the site of an old school, beside the stream which marks the boundary between the settlements of South Lochboisdale and North Glendale in the southeast of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The sculpture is part of the Road End Sculpture project, promoted by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in North Uist. The sculpture celebrates the history, the agricultural heritage, and the poets of the area, taking the form of a curved stone wall that shelters five seats facing out across the bay, providing a place to sit and listen, reflect on the poetry and absorb the landscape. The seats are modelled on those of a tractor owned by a local crofter. The curved wall that incorporates various unusual elements including parts of agricultural machinery, a sample of soil which came as ballast on Russian ships which landed at nearby in the seventeenth century and works by two local Gaelic poets; namely 'Gleann na Ceòlraidh' by Donald MacDonald from South Lochboisdale and 'Taigh a' Bhàird' by Donald J.
Title
The Listening Place
Date
2000
Medium
metal, stone & wood
Measurements
H 100 x W 500 x D 300 cm (E)
Accession number
HS7_DO_S078
Acquisition method
commissioned by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre
Work type
Sculpture
Owner
Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre
Custodian
Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre
Work status
extant
Unveiling date
December 2000
Access
at all times
Signature/marks description
stone panel inscribed with a represeantation of a simple tower bearing the initials 'CR'
Inscription description
information panel: Roadends Community Sculpture Project / Roadends encouraged communities to celebrate their identities, history and spirit by working with an artist to create / an artwork set in the landscape. Other sculpture locations are Claddach Baleshare in North Uist, Locheport in North / Uist and Balvanich School, Benbecula. Commissioned by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Art Centre. / The Listening Place by Valerie Pragnell. December 2000. / The Listening Place celebrates the history, the bards and the agricultural aspect of the area. / Appropriately, its location is on the site of the old village school, beside the burn which marks the / boundary of South Lochboisdale and North Glendale. Verses from two poems are inscribed on stone. / The poems Gleann na Ceòlraidh by Donald MacDonald from South Lochboisdale and Taigh a' Bhàird by / Donald J MacDonald from Peninerine, were chosen by members of the community. Five replica cast / tractor seats provide a place to sit, listen and reflect on the poetry. / The sculpture was built by Archie Walker. / Aite na h-Eisdeachd / Tha Aite na h-Esideachd a' moladh eachdraidh, obair-fearainn agus bàird na sgìre. Mar a bu chòir, tha e air / a thogail air làrach an t-seann taigh-sgoile, ri taobhna h-aibhne a tha comharrachadh criochan Taobh-a- / Deas Loch Baghasdail agus Ceann-a-Tuath Ghleann Dail. The earannan à da dhàn air an sgriobhadh air / cloich Bha na dàin, Gleann na Ceolraidh le Dòmhnall Aonhais Bhàin à taobh-a-Deas Loch Baghasdail agus / Taigh a' Bhàird le Dòmhnall Iain Dhunnchaidh à Peighinn an Aoirinn, air an taghadh le buill dhen / choimhearsachd. Chaidh a thogal le Earrdsaidh Walker. / Taigh chearsabhagh / THE SCOTTISH ARTS COUNCIL / National Lottery Fund / Iomairt nan Eilean Siar / Western Isles Enterprise / support from: Uist Builders Ltd / RJ MacLeod / CWS Monumental, Glasgow Panel 1: Nach iomadh seanchas is oran / A dh'eist an oige bhon aois / Taobh a' ghealbhain ded chomlaidh / 'S an teine monadh 'na chraos: / Gillean gasta 'nad cheilidh / A thataidh leirsinn do ghaoil. / 'S b'e lasair theine ceann thoidean / Bu tric a threoraich na laoich. Panel 2: How many stories and songs / The young heard from th eold / Ben the house by the fire / Round the blazing peats told / Fine lads at your ceilidh / Drawn by the sight of your love / Off to light their way there / A glowing peat was enough. Panel 3: Great inspiration / Was growing in the glen: / There were poets there, and pipers, / And explicators with a pen: / Music echoed from the braes there / With hospitality galore - / And the living could be had there / With a masted brown-sailed boat. Panel 4: Bu mhor an togail inntinn / A bha cinntinn anns a ghleabb: / Bha baird ann agus piobairean / S tuchd mineachaidh le peann. / Bha ceol air feadh nam bruachan ann / Le suairce nach bu ghann - / S bha beoshlainte ri buabbachd ann / Le bat' 's seol ruadh air chrann.
