Schiltron, 2023
Performance | Schiltron, 2023 | 10 performers | Duration: Variable, based on completion of task | Generator Projects, Mind the Gap opening, 24 April 2023
'Schiltron' is a group performance exploring how 10 people join together to form a unit by sewing themselves together into a collective garment.
Historically, the schiltron is a compact body of troops, most often associated with Scottish pike formations during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. There are several recorded instances of circular formations - fortified by driving stakes into the ground before men, with ropes between. Long spears (pikes) were pointed outwards at various heights, giving these formations a formidable and impenetrable appearance.