Dizzy Birds

Photos of the first stage in creating the hanging. Thanks to Alison, Carol, Rose, Marie, Sheila and the children; Jemima, Lucy & George.

This hanging is oriented specifically to the north west wall in Elsdon Village Hall for the year 2015.

What is commonly known as the yin yang symbol was widely used by the Ancient Celts who populated Britain from around 500BC to 60AD. The many cup and ring marks in this area were carved by them and there is much to be seen at nearby Simonside, their sacred hill and an important site in the Ancient Celtic Kingdom.

The Celts saw the Cosmos as a wheel, constantly in motion around an axis. The wheel representing the female, the earth goddess, the Potential – vitality, fertility and space. The axis representing the male, the horned god, actualising the potential dealing with objects and the material. We have used the oak tree, as they often did, to represent the axis.   It was central to their philosophy that both halves were equal in order to maintain the Cycle of Life.

The symbols we have chosen for the points of the compass recur in Celtic artwork and are approximately in line with the orientation of the hanging.

The images used to illustrate the Vernal (Spring) and Autumnal Equinoxes, the Summer and Winter Solstices are also Celtic in origin.

On the border of the hanging you will see, for the Vernal Equinox, its timing, the degrees and times of sunrise and sunset and the distance of the Sun from Earth as it crosses the Meridian on March 20th 2015. The same information is displayed for the Moon for the Autumnal Equinox on September 23rd 2015. Also located are the Lunar and Solar eclipses for the year.

All of this is going on in the background, endlessly revolving and places the Community of Elsdon into its larger context within the Cosmos. We have aimed to freeze a pane in 2015, showing what Spring and Autumn in particular mean to us in the here and now in and around Elsdon, attempting to capture the moment as it passes.