This limited edition book documents the making of the artwork Travelling the Distance, and records the contribution of the women who contributed to it. With accompanying essays by artist and educator Tanya Eccleston and former Head of Equality, Human Rights & Third Sector at Scottish Government, Yvonne Strachan, it was designed and produced by Corrie Gerard at Skratch Design and published in 2007. Launched in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament, It was gifted to each of the contributors to the artwork and distributed to libraries throughout Scotland.
Travelling the Distance, is a permanent public artwork, which was commissioned by The Scottish Executive for the Scottish Parliament to coincide with the centenary year of the Scottish Women's Suffragette Federation and exists as 100 porcelain hand written sentences in Scots, English and Gaelic. The project involved a yearlong journey throughout Scotland and the islands, meeting with 100 women each one referring me onto the next in a chain of connections. Each woman was invited to write a sentence, in their handwriting, in recognition of another woman they thought had made, or continues to make, an important contribution to Scotland.
Through the process, a confluence of fellow workers, friends, strangers, family, neighbours, politicians, historians, academics, musicians, gardeners and pensioners come together to form a powerful chain reaction. It was a non-hierarchical, open-ended process with multiple horizontal interconnections across arts, sciences and social struggles, which placed equality and democracy at its heart.
