This project documents the subtle and dramatic changes in the effects of weather and the passage of the seasons from a single viewpoint in the garden at Little Sparta.

There seemed to be no more obvious choice to represent this idea than the spot overlooking these iconic stones, with a view to the lochan, the parkland, the farm and moorland horizon beyond.

The photographs were each taken on the same day and time each week (Tuesday mornings) from the same position as a random and yet very exacting record of the garden.

The project also of course records the words themselves – and their multiple possible readings – political, philosophical, temporal, revolutionary….

THE PRESENT ORDER
IS THE DISORDER
OF THE FUTURE
SAINT-JUST

The stones are arranged as if you have come across the vestiges of some forgotten classical world – the fact that they carry a quotation from one of the main protagonists in the French Revolution is somehow not alien or out of kilter, for the message itself is a universal one: it links us to ideas of the past, present and future and is also an acknowledgement of our very human place in nature.

George Gilliland
Head gardener