Jill Smith’s Zodiac Journey: Epilogue
I am still in the reality of Zodiac, returning in my memory and imagination to the actions of the previous year as the zodiac turns again
Photo: Mhairi Law
Now that I have completed the twelve actions of my Zodiac Journey for Fruitmarket, I have a sense of achievement, fulfilment, satisfaction that I have done what I set out to do; that I have done what I said I would do; but I also have a sense of relief, for at my age it was a greater commitment than people might have realised, involving much time, work and energy – apart from the actual days of the actions.
I was very surprised when, in February 2023, I was asked to carry out a year-long project as part of Fruitmarket’s 50-year celebrations. I felt very honoured, but also quite daunted – yet it was something I very much wanted to do.
Although it was not something I would otherwise have thought of doing, it all fell into place very quickly. I knew the sites for each sign and what each should be about. It was perhaps something I had needed to do without realising it. I began working on the preparations immediately, so it has taken over a year and a half of my time.
It was like a weaving – bringing together many different threads of my life into one whole. Outwardly it might seem that I brought in many elements from my days as a Performance Artist when I was known as Jill Bruce, but there have been so many other subtle but deep threads woven in. I have visited, and still visit, many of the chosen sites over and over again, year after year, in another form of journey; very quietly on my own, or years ago with my youngest son Taliesin, carrying out tiny little actions which had great meaning and which have now become part of this more public whole.
For a few actions I have repeated things I have done in the past, enriching them, giving them new or enhanced meaning, but most have been completely new. I have done new things at familiar places and incorporated a few elements from previous journeys, such as the Gypsy Switch.
I have woven in my family by use of photographs (and in Aries had my daughter Saffron actually with me) and many special and precious objects which have powerful connections with people and places from many different parts and times of my life. A lot of memories – a few of people who are no longer with us, or places I will never visit again.
It has been a very rich and intense weaving, and I have tried to share this each month in my diaries. I entered the reality of Zodiac and the experience of each sign filled me for the whole of its month; not just the one day of the action, but the build-up, the preparation, living each one over and over before I actually carried it out, so that the one day became like a dream. Then, the winding-down, the diary- writing, the selection of just two photographs from the huge number Mhairi Law had sent us. It was all-consuming.
When Iain Morrison came to Lewis in February 2023 with the invitation to carry out the project, it was obvious that it must be photographically documented, so the photographs and diaries could gradually build up on the Fruitmarket website. Who could we ask to be the photographer? I knew it had to be a woman, and had seen some of Mhairi’s photographs and had immensely admired the project she had carried out for a Dark Skies exhibition at An Lanntair, Stornoway. I felt she would have an understanding of what I was doing. It had to be someone based on Lewis who was prepared to commit to twelve specific days out with me over the course of a year, followed by all the editing, fitting it around the rest of their own work. When Fruitmarket approached Mhairi and she agreed, I was over the moon.
It was a very new experience for me, working in this way with a photographer. In my past performance days in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, our children were given a camera and photographed what they could, and in those days before phone cameras we occasionally received images from others who had been observers, so the documentation was very random and not the main object of the performance. If we got something we could use afterwards we were very grateful.
In those days, when my late ex-husband Bruce Lacey and I made journeys on our own to ancient sites and carried out actions at them, we set up our own camera on delay to capture moments we recreated after carrying them out ‘for real’, or photographed each other.
In later years I largely gave up photographing my small but powerful private actions, turning to pastel drawings as a way of sharing with others my experience of place.
So, here on the Zodiac Journey I was doing something for real, something that was a form of my art, a part of my spirituality and my relationship with these places, yet it was also to specifically create the photographs Mhairi would take, which would become the images on the website.
It took a while for us to get into the perfect rhythm of working together. I was a bit in awe of Mhairi, not wanting to tell this brilliant photographer what to do, yet having images in my head of what the photographs would be like. I had to learn to let her know more of what I envisaged and she had to learn to ask me more questions. However, I have marvelled at the images she has captured and am very aware that you cannot just point a camera, click, and get the perfect picture. I have been very honoured to have been captured so beautifully in her photographs. Thank you so much, Mhairi.
As the project progressed I began to wonder what the art actually was, and also where it was. Was it the real-time actions carried out by me at the specific sites; was it Mhairi’s photographs of me in these places; was it the gradual build-up of the photographs and my diaries on Fruitmarket’s web-site? Where would it be when it was over? It was a strange feeling.
Mhairi took so many photographs of each action it was difficult to choose one Main and one Bonus to sum up everything about each, as they often had many different elements. Clicking through the pictures she sent us was like watching a film of the whole thing from start to finish, yet one image must sum up that whole. There were many factors influencing the decision, so it isn’t always the most stunning photograph which was chosen – but all her photographs were wonderful. That was the problem!
Since I ceased to be Jill Bruce and returned to being Jill Smith, as I was named by my parents, I have not considered myself to be a Performance Artist any longer, becoming known to a wide range of people who were not connected to the art-world for my pastel art-works, cards and prints and my magazine articles and books. My past journeys were spiritual and real-time experiences as well as my art, but carried out away from that formal art-world, although nearly all of them ended in some form of exhibition, though not in conventional art situations.
I do not consider these Zodiac actions to have been performances. They have had a depth of spiritual reality for me, even though I created my elemental outfits (not costumes) in which to carry them out. They were done as something special for Fruitmarket. I like the term ‘action’, even though some of them were still and silent contemplations.
One thread which has been absent, though, has been that of my pastel art-work, which is what I consider to be my main form of art these days, and is what I have been known for over several decades. Just two small photographs of my pictures nestled among other objects on two of the actions (Libra and Sagittarius). I am hoping my life will gentle down in a few months and I can return to this form of expression. I shall however, continue to journey the year by visiting many of these places again and again. I do not know what other major journeys will suddenly tell me in the future that they need to be done!
In the meantime, I am still in the reality of Zodiac, returning in my memory and imagination to the actions of the previous year as the zodiac turns again, and I pass or visit the sites of the Journey. It has, as I have said, been very intense, and that intensity hasn’t left me. It is still present, not past. So many threads woven together have created a whole, rich in memory, bringing past into present, present into a concrete reality.
I am so grateful to Fruitmarket, especially to Fiona Bradley for asking me to do this, to Iain Morrison, who has provided massive trusted support throughout, to those who have lent me things, appeared in some of the actions – all mentioned in the diaries –and to those who came to the events where I invited people, adding a completely extra dimension – and of course to Mhairi Law, for agreeing to do this and being so good to work with and providing such wonderful imagery.
I think this project will never actually be over for me – just live on year after year for the rest of my life.
Jill Smith, August 2024
See also www.jill-smith.co.uk
Main images: Mhairi Law
