Jim Buchanan has been constructing labyrinths for over forty years, both within his former profession as a landscape architect, and then from his artist studio located in Dumfries, South West Scotland.

The Labyrinth of Light at CatStrand is exploratory, an artist’s sketchbook page made real for a weekend, with adjustments being made by the artist to both soundscape and shadow creation over the weekend.

Labyrinths have been born of all materials, including fire, clay, ice, steel, light, straw and with the incoming tide. Whilst material and scale may change with each site-specific installation, the common thread is the choreography of movement and its counterbalance, stillness. Jim is fascinated by this alchemy of combining place, material and people, and how the calibration of these elements can positively support physical and emotional balance.

Light projections are a duet between illumination and shadow, with the choreography of human movement calibrated to reveal or obscure the journey. Whilst light represents the ‘timeless’ such as the heavens, the spiritual and the cosmos, our bodily shadow anchors us in a liminal zone between full light and darkness.

Research on the effects of walking through a labyrinth of light at the Alberta Children’s Hospital (Calgary) has shown positive effects on heart rate variability aligned with increased mental awareness. Jim has recently undertaken permanent outdoor labyrinths for the STAR Project (Fountains Park, Paisley) and within the courtyard at the Clydebank Health & Care Centre.

This installation in CatStrand Auditorium is free to attend and booking is not required.