Alistair Peebles is at work on an early biography of the internationally renowned poet, artist and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006), and a pivotal stage in that story is his visit to Rousay in spring 1959. Perennially poor, Finlay supported himself there by working as a road labourer, while at the same time, as he said a few years later, he “began to write poetry”. Finlay later mythologised the visit, allowing it to become largely obscure to the biographical record—scant as that was—but creatively it was seminal. Originally created as a Centenary homage to Finlay’s time on the island, Rousay Mending alludes to that connection and to the significance of the months he spent there in spring 1959.

It comprises a hinged tin (c.110 x 80 x 25mm) and contents, with a band carrying the title, colophon, limitation (edition of 60) and the author’s signature. Its contents are eight cards die-cut in a design derived from those traditionally used for darning and repairs. They are hand-stamped in each case with three words, and wound with three corresponding (and thus implicitly re-named) colours of Shetland 2-ply wool. There are thus 24 words and 24 colours in total, 3 of which represent teas, Finlay’s favourite beverage. Each word refers to an aspect of Finlay’s experience of the island, and/or to the poetry he wrote there or about there. While together each set of words constitutes in effect a poem—e.g. “SEABOOT/LOBSTER/TAR”—taken as a whole they convey, in combination with the associated strand of wool, and the rest of the mending kit, the homage intended, playful but based on extensive research into a period hitherto highly obscure.

Included with the mending kit are:

Rousay Mending: A Footnote

In some respects an early and extended draft of a chapter of biography, this comprises an A2 90gsm sheet, printed both sides and folded to A6: a design based on the London quarterly art periodical Picpus. With map and illustrations, it provides an 8,000+ word contextualisation of Rousay Mending. It examines both the mythic and the personal significance to Finlay of that time and place in his life as a poet, and expands in detail on the biographical and poetic implications of the words that appear in the kit.

A postcard illustrating the contents of the tin

Related material is available online at alistairpeebles.com:

The Bibliography and Endnotes for Rousay Mending: A Footnote

Such an Air, a speculative narrative that provides further biographical background to the work

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