Ian Hamilton Finlay: Bridge Piers, 1990
We have selected Ian Hamilton Finlay's 'Bridge Piers' as an example of a project succeeding in the face of adversity. With limited funding, commission plan and artist's brief its surprising the project managed to happen at all. The power of the piece comes from its modesty, a tribute to faded empires and industries, and since Finlay's death in 2006 it serves as an important legacy to one of Scotland's most important visual artists and writers.
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Ian Hamilton Finlay (CBE) was born on the 28th October 1925 in Nassau, Bahamas to Scottish parents, and lived and worked in Scotland until his death in 2006. Working across a breadth of discourses, Finlay had worked as a shepherd, studied philosophy, and written plays and poetry before beginning to inscribe language onto existing objects to create sculptures and gardens. Recurring themes in his work include classical writers such as Virgil as well as fishing, rural life and the sea. He is perhaps best known for the garden at his home Little Sparta, in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, which contains over 270 of his works and was begun in 1966. Gardens created by Finlay include 'Improvement Garden' in Stockwood Park, Luton, created in collaboration with Sue Finlay, Gary Hincks and Nicholas Sloan and 'Sacred Grove', created between 1980 and 1982 at the Kröller-Müller Sculpture Park. Finlay exhibited widely and created many public works including 'The Present Order' with Peter Coates, for Barcelona City Council, 1999 and 'Et In Arcadia Ego' with Peter Coates for Stroom, The Hague, Netherlands, 1998. Finlay was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1985. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Aberdeen University (1987), Heriot-Watt University (1993) and the University of Glasgow (2001), and an honorary and/or visiting professorship from the University of Dundee in 1999. Finlay founded 'The Wild Hawthorn Press' with Jessie McGuffie in 1964, through which he published his writings and poetry.