Kilmardinny Tree

Kilmardinny House, Bearsden, 2017

The Kilmardinny Tree, explores nature as both subject and medium, draws from the area’s rich history of Calico industry and Robert Dalglish, who acquired Kilmardinny in 1853 and was head of the extensive Calico printing firm Dalglish Falconer & Company. Sourcing a fallen tree in the grounds of Kilmardinny, Elpida reinvents and gives it new form, inverted and carefully gilded in gold leaf. Kilmardinny House is one of this area’s most iconic buildings, and the radiant, gilded tree, draws viewers in from a distance acting, offering a dramatic addition to the landscape as well as intricate details based on archival pattern books. These patterns refer to a calico design work ‘Kanga’ c1900, currently at the Auld Kirk Museum, believed to be the only remaining original relic of Calico printing. As part of the process, Elpida worked with a group of local volunteers to prepare and create the work. This Kilmardinny Tree is reflecting the cycles of ownership, curation and patronage, development and beauty of Kilmardinny House and Gardens.

Commissioned by Trails & Tales Public Art & Heritage, permanently sited at Kilmardinny House, East Dunbartonshire (UK)

Read Esmee Thompson-Smith's text on The Kilmardinny Tree here.