The crew of Aberdeen ship the SS Rubislaw found themselves in unfortunate circumstances at the beginning of the First World War and spent nearly the entire war at Ruhleben, an abandoned race track near Berlin. To pass the time and improve their diet they started growing vegetables and planting flowers, eventually forming their own forming their own horticultural society.
The Rubislaw had set sail from Aberdeen on 31 July 1914, bound for the German port of Hamburg. Unfortunately for them, four days later, war was declared and the ship was impounded and forced to stay in Hamburg harbour.
To improve their stay at the camp the crew turned to horticulture. They decorated the barbed wire fences with sweet peas and planted around 20,000 cabbages and a range of other vegetables to improve their diet.
After the war, the SS Rubislaw returned to sea. However, in November 1939, the ship struck a mine off the coast of England and sank within minutes.
Artist’s Response
The story we chose was the SS Rubislaw, a story of a ship and crew who sailed to Germany days before the outbreak of the Second World War. They were interned and living in poor conditions with little food, so to better their outlook on life and make their environment homelier, they grew their own fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Inspired by this story we knew we wanted incorporate the idea of growing into our print, so we sourced seed paper with forget-me-not seeds mixed through the fibres of the paper, so in theory the print could grow, given the right conditions.
We then used a plasma cutter to cut out out the silhouette of the ship on copper and then etched in the finer details. We wanted a mirrored image of the ship so we rolled the plate with a transparent grey and embossed it in place. We then flattened barbed wire and put it through the press to emboss the paper underneath the ship.
Ellie Swanston
Gray’s School of Art
Robert Gordon’s University
Originally from Irvine, Ellie spent a year studying Contemporary Art Practice at Glasgow Clyde college in Anniesland, which is where she met Hannah. Ellie is now in her first year studying CAP at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. She has always been fascinated with printmaking, as she was exposed to it from a young age, and is excited to learn more as she continues through the next three years of art school.
Hannah Baird
Gray’s School of Art
Robert Gordon’s University
Originally from a small seaside town in the Highlands, Hannah spent a year down in Glasgow studying Contemporary Art Practice at Glasgow Clyde, where she met Ellie. Hannah is now finishing her first year in Contemporary Art Practice at Gray’s School of Art. Hannah is relatively new to the printmaking scene, but has been captivated by it since discovering it in Glasgow.
