Angelica*

Beka Globe

Angelica*

Artwork Details

Photograph
H:450 x W:450 x D:1(mm)

Part of the Flowers series

Re-Soundings*

Mhairi Killin

Re-Soundings*

Artwork Details

2016
Re cast WW1 munitions

“The Heretics Take Down the Bells from the Churches in Geneva: On the next Wednesday (May 12th) those dogs removed the bell from Notre Dame de Grace and threw it down from the Steeple to destroy it. Afterwards they went to see the bells at the monastery of Palais and at the parish of Saint-Gervais because they wanted to melt them down and make weapons to use against monseigneur and the Christians.”[i]

Commissioned by An Lanntair, Re-Soundings is the outcome of a collaborative journey through the landscapes of Lewis and Iona. Musician John Purser of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and Lewis writer Alastair McIntosh, accompanied us in our exploration of the bell as a symbol of secular and non-secular time all set against the wider context of the reformation in Europe. The thinking behind Re-Soundings was directly informed by the time spent in specific landscapes with local people who shared their knowledge and connection to place, and through conversations and activities with Alastair McIntosh and John Purser. Re-Soundings references the iconoclasm of the Reformation and the impact of this on belief structures in the Hebrides, suggested by the presence and absence of the bell as a visual and auditory feature in the landscape. One of Alastair McIntosh’s observations on Lewis’s bell-less belfries is that the empty space leaves room to look through and beyond to an alternative and, some might argue, deeper understanding of belief. The emptiness and silence has created a space not only for reflection, but also, for creativity. Into this, Re-Soundings ventures.

The exhibition at An Lanntair in May/June 2016 and the sound interventions at St. Moluag’s Chapel on Lewis and St. Oran’s Chapel on Iona in June 2016, reflect months of shared thinking, and engagement with one another’s artistic and scholarly practices, and with the people most connected to the landscapes we explored. Created by John Purser, the sound work was composed primarily from bell recordings gathered during public workshops and performances on Lewis and Iona.

The bells were created by re casting WW1 munitions into replicas of two early Christian quadrangular hand-bells. We chose this material to symbolise a rethinking of the iconoclasm of the Reformation in Europe; we know from historical documents that bells were removed from religious buildings and recast as munitions. It seemed fitting to use munitions from the Great War, given that the project coincides with its centenary. The project is supported by a bi-lingual publication with commissioned writing from Alastair McIntosh, John Purser and Francis MacKee and includes a CD of the sound piece and pullout screen printed map of the geographical context of the project.

The publication serves as an artefact to the project, extending its life beyond the chronology of the exhibition and installations. One meaning of “inspiration” is to breathe in, and as artists we have inhaled deeply of the exceptional physical, spiritual and cultural terrain of Lewis and Iona.

We hope that the Re Soundings website, publication and CD will allow you to share in that breath.

The project would not have been possible without the generous support of Creative Scotland, An Lanntair, Comhlairle nan Eileen Siar, Historic Environment Scotland, Sabhal Mar Ostaig, Fiona MacNeill Associates, Aosdàna, Media Studio Glasgow School of Art, Ness Historical Society, Shawbost Historical Society, St. Peter’s Church Stornoway. Personal thanks also to Acair Books, Alastair McIntosh, John Purser, Frances McKee; Roddy Murray, Elly Fletcher, Jon Macleod, An Lanntair; Rev. Terry Taggart, St. Peter’s Church Stornoway; Finlay Macleod; Andy Crossan; Andrew Laing, Laings Foundry Edinburgh; Calum Angus Mackay, Ivor MacKenzie, MastArd Studio; Etta and Roddy Morrison; Jim Crawford; Anne Macleod, Ness Historical Society; Iain Macaulay; Alasdair MacKay, Skyespace, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig; Geoff Allen, CaVa Recording Studios; Andy Graham, Graphical House; Alasdair MacLeoid, Facal; Jane Martin, Historic Environment Scotland; Pete Johnson, Ratho Forge; Gordon Bruce, Aosdàna; Andrew Tibbles, Mark Craig, MakLab. Finally, we owe many thanks to the participants of the Lewis and Iona sound workshops. Their engagement with the bells provided John with a wealth of audio material for his composition.

‘S Fhada Leam an Oidhche Gheamraidh (I Feel the Winter Night is Long)*

Mary Morrison

‘S Fhada Leam an Oidhche Gheamraidh (I Feel the Winter Night is Long)*

‘S Fhada Leam an Oidhche Gheamraidh (I Feel the Winter Night is Long)* - Detail

Artwork Details

2016
Oil/Mixed Media on paper
H:260 x W:1020(mm)

‘S Fhada Leam an Oidhche Gheamraidh (Long is the winter night)

This work is presented here as part of the Hulabhaig Collection by kind permission of the artist.

Work inspired by the songs of Murdo MacFarlane (Bàrd Mhealboist).

This song was written when Murdo was a young man, working in Manitoba, Canada, and is a classic ‘exile’ song. A very beautiful song. The translations don’t do the songs justice, either in the beauty of the gaelic original or the music.

"I wanted to use a horizon in a large-scale painting, and embody that sense of exile and longing in the song. ‘Cianalas’ is a very particular term in gaelic, often translated as homesickness, it is much more profound than that, as this translation suggests: ‘A deep seated sense of belonging to the place where your roots lie. Normally attributed to the Outer Hebrides. There is no sadness or melancholy in cianalas, only the realisation of what is truly important in life.’"

‘S Fhada Leam an Oidhche Gheamraidh (extract)

I feel the winter night long
Long, long, long it is
I can see nothing but a bare prairie there
And I can’t hear a wave coming to the shore

(Chorus)
In the evening time when it’s getting dark
Often the spirit will be full of longing
Thinking that there is a long, long distance
From where I would like to be ceilidhing

The work was created for an exhibition curated by Ishbel Murray 2016 based around a book launch.

'Le Mùirn' (With Affection)
Author - Catriona Murray https://www.ishbelmurray.org/collaboration.html

Photo courtesy of the artist.

https://rhea-banker.com/

https://www.instagram.com/rhea_banker_photography

https://www.facebook.com/rhea.banker/

Rhea Banker

"Within the bedrock of this planet, there are untold stories of history, of continental journeys, of coasts that bear witness to it all. My work is about capturing these untold stories by focusing on the smallest details held within the Earth’s crust. I explore geological features, worn surfaces, and glacial intrusions that reflect this ongoing transformation.

Using macro-photography as the starting point for my prints, my goal, however, is not to document the physical, but to share my intuitive response to these ancient and on-going stories. I work to reveal details, evoke movement through patterns, and add layers to share a sense of place, of time, and of personal journey.”

Rhea Banker is a photographer and award winning book designer. After living and working in New York City for 30 years, she now makes her base in Northwestern Massachusetts. Much of her work is based on journeys to far rocky edges of the world, including Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Greenland, and Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego. Her abstract studies of patterns within the Earth’s ancient surfaces have been exhibited in a variety of museums, galleries, and cultural centers, including locations in Copenhagen, Denmark; Edinburgh, Scotland; Scotland's Outer Hebrides; New York, New York, USA; Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in a variety of museums in Greenland (see below).

Much of her work is based on ancient movements recorded within the Earth’s crust and maps of imagined lands. Her textural abstract images are her reflections of these movements, and reveal her own attempts at understanding and sharing stories held within the landscape..

Her most recent work is focused on explorations along Greenland's west coast over the last 5 years. These newest images are responses to the deep connections she experiences between stone, sea, and ice as we witness a new epoch in the life of our fragile planet.

She has also done site-specific work and has permanent installations for the Stornoway Airport, Isle of Lewis; Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, Scotland; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, New York; and the University of Pennsylvania Berks Campus, Pennsylvania.

In addition to Rhea’s photographic work, she is a professional book designer. Her designs have won multiple awards, and have been repeatedly exhibited at the New York Bookbinder’s Exhibitions in New York City.

A graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Rhea received her BFA in Design and a BA in Art History. While there, she was the winner of the Evelyn Rumsey Lord Travel Fellowship. She has lectured undergraduates in Medieval Art History as well as in the History of Photography. She is currently based in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

EXHIBITIONS, INSTALLATIONS and EVENTS

2023 – Anchor House/The New England Visionary Artists Museum - Excavations/Revelations - new work from Greenland - Northampton, Massachusetts

2023 – Olive Free Library - cARTography: Alternate Routes - maps in art group show - West Shokan, New York

2022 – Uummannaq Children’s Home - Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape/Exhibit and children’s workshop - Uummannaq, Greenland

2021 – Forbes Library- As Glaciers Recede: Textures of Svalbard - Works from an Arctic Residency - Northampton, Massachusetts

2021 – Salmon Falls Gallery - Divergence/Shaping the Land - work during a year of lockdown - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

2020 - Nuutoqaq/Nuuk Lokalmuseum – Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape/exhibit and workshop - Nuuk, Greenland

2020 - Peary/Macmillan Arctic Museum – Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape - Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine

2019 – Arctic Circle Residency - participated in art residency exploring impact of climate change, sailing the coasts of the Svalbard Archipelago

2019 – Sunderland Library - Valtos/Landscape and Language - new work from Scotland’s Outer Hebrides - Sunderland, Massachusetts

2018 – Hitchcock Center for the Environment - Melting Ice, Rising Seas - Amherst, Massachusetts

2018 – Narsaq Museum - Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape - Narsaq, Greenland

2018 – Explorer's Club Polar Film Exhibit - QAQQAQ: a portrait of Uummannaq Mountain - New York City

2017 – Uummannaq Museum - QAQQAQ: a portrait of Uummannaq Mountain - Uummannaq, Grteenland

2017 – Taste of Science Festival - Akunnaaq: The Place in Between - recent Greenlandic work - New York City, NY

2016 – RhueArt Gallery - Greenland: At the Margins - (see below under 2015 for installation description) - Ullapool, Scotland

2016 – Moray Art Centre - Greenland: At the Margins - Inverness, Scotland

2015 – Greenland: At the Margins – 2 person collaboration, with artist Jane Rushton, that traveled to 3 major cultural centers on the Western coast of Greenland – Ilulissat Kunstmuseum, Ilulissat; Nuuk Kunstmseum, Nuuk; Taseralik Cultural Center, Sisimiut; Greenlandic Hus, Copenhagen, Denmark

2014 – Greenlandic Hus – Greenland: At the Margins – 2 person show focused on impressions of Greenland’s changing coastline – Copenhagen, Denmark

2012 – Penn State College – Permanent Installation - Art and Science Collaboration – Reading Pennsylvania, USA

2011 – Queen’s Hall - Permanent installation following Edinburgh Fringe Festival – Atlas Novus – Edinburgh, Scotland

2010 – Stornoway Trust Nature Centre – permanent installation – Isle of Lewis, Scotland

2009 – Bernera Historical Museum –Textures of an Island - to benefit the Bernera Museum– Isle of Bernera, Scotland

2008 – Kirkland & Ellis Gallery – Stone and Bronze –2 person show– New York City, New York

2008 – Stornoway Airport – Permanent Installation Part 2 – For the Telling – Departure Hall – Isle of Lewis, Scotland

2008 – Canongate Kirk - Permanent Installation following Edinburgh Fringe Festival – Vanishing Views - Edinburgh, Scotland

2008 – Pearson Educación Argentina- Tiera del Fuego/ Stone and Sea –solo exhibit - Buenos Aires, Argentina

2007 – Stornoway Airport– Permanent Installation Part 1 – Circling the Stones – Arrivals Hall – Outer Hebrides, Scotland

2007 – Ceres Gallery – Recent Excavations – solo exhibit – New York City, New York

2007 – St. Paul’s Episcopal Church– Anonymous Pilgrims of Chartres – Permanent Installation – Brooklyn, New York

2007 – Pearson Plc. Corporate Offices – small works– White Plains, New York

2006 – AtticSalt Gallery – Hebridean Works – Edinburgh, Scotland

2006 – Krasdale Gallery – New works – New York City , New York

2006 – Cathedral of St. John Divine – Anonymous Pilgrims of Chartres – installation – New York City, New York

2006 - Ceres Gallery - Square Show – New York City, New York

2005 - Annual JFS Juried Show – Edison, New Jersey

2005 – New York Inter-church Center Gallery – Signs and Surfaces – solo exhibit – New York City, New York

2004 – Ceres Gallery – Meridians: Scotland’s Outer Hebrides - solo exhibit – New York City, New York

2004 – Ceres Gallery - Constellation Group Show – New York City, New York

2003 – Callanish Visitor Center Gallery – New Work – Isle of Lewis, Scotland

1997 - New York Bookbuilders Design Show – Silver – New York City, New York

1995 - Museum of Women’s History Installation - Cooperstown, NY

Sarah's work has always intrigued me, with her inclusion of waste and discarded plastic, and unnatural objects into otherwise rugged landscapes.  In 2021 her work 'A Road Less Travelled' was selected for the Hulabhaig Curator purchase prize, its suggestion that our islands are not quite as perfect as we hope they are, reflect a reality which many visitors and incomers are happy to ignore in endless social media posts of beaches and sunsets.

https://www.sarahbold.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sarahabold/

Sarah Bold

Originally from Australia, Sarah now lives in the Western Isles of Scotland. She is a landscape painter interested in the significant impact of human activity upon the planet’s ecosystems, geology and climate, and more specifically how this relates to the rural environment. Issues such as climate change, the coastal and marine environment, agriculture, isolation and migration underpin her work, whilst considering our transitory existence in relation to the geological age of the Earth.

Her paintings are in oil paint and hover between figurative and abstraction. She studied painting at the University of Arts, London and is a graduate of Turps Banana Painting Correspondence course. Sarah is a recent recipient for the Society of Scottish Artists mentor/mentee yearly programme. Sarah was awarded the Mall Galleries’ ING Discerning Eye Landscape Prize 2023.

Recent exhibition's include Art On A Post Card International Women’s Day 2024, Detail Art Gallery, Edinburgh, Irving Gallery, RSW Annual exhibition, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, Wells Contemporary, Royal Scottish Academy Annual. Previously Sarah has won the Jackson’s Painting Landscape Prize, was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Art Prize and received the Hulabhaig Curator’s Purchase Award.

I first saw Beka’s ‘Clover’ image at a show at An Lanntair, where I was invited to show one of my own sculptures. The size of it was key, altering your perception, changing your viewpoint it made you feel small, its subject confirmed it.

As I looked up to view the flower from an insects perspective, it became abstract, almost sculptural reminding me of monumental work I’d recently seen at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Printed in large scale format almost a metre square ‘Clover’ commands a powerful place in the collection. I’m also grateful to Beka for kindly allowing me to include the other images from the ‘Flowers’ series in our virtual gallery. I’m looking forward to exploring interesting CGI ways to display them.

https://www.themissionhouse.co.uk/

Beka Globe

Beka moved to the Isle of Harris when she was 11 years old. Her father, the renown sculptor Steve Dilworth, had relocated the family to find more inspirational surroundings, they certainly found it on Harris.

She studied photography at Napier University in Edinburgh in the 1990’s, and now returning to Harris to raise her own family, her photographic work has developed a unique style which reflects the dramatic environment and contrasting boundaries that these isles have to offer.

With the Hebridean flowers, Beka felt it was important to use natural light. All back lit, she wanted the feeling of being a fairy at the bottom of the garden, underneath and surrounded by flowers, photographing them almost from below looking up, like an insects eye view. Capturing a presence of being amongst the flowers.

In an interview with David Lintern for Walk Highlands Beka recalls…

“The flowers were about going deep, into the detail, the structure of life, the organic side of Harris, still very much part of the landscape, but on another level. Everything is connected and I see the flowers as a whole new way of looking, from the perspective of a bee… They were taken with natural daylight in super macro, and in some cases using multiple stacked exposures to create a different perspective.”

My first meeting with Nickolai was at The Mission House, the converted church that he and his photographer wife Beka Globe now call home and studio.
My visit was not initially about art, more about the church, as I had just gained permission from the owners to explore possibilities at Baile na Cille church and I was hungry for ideas and how-to’s etc..

But on entering it was the artworks that impressed easily as much as the Mission House they were surrounded by. That was back in 2019, now I’m back in 2024 to pickup a ceramic piece I’ve selected for the collection, ‘Geo’ - a work that reflects the dramatic nature of the east coast of Harris, complete with its own cracked glass lochan.

https://www.themissionhouse.co.uk/

Nickolai Globe

The ceramic works of Nickolai Globe are influenced directly by the environment of the rugged North West. Drawing from elements of Zen and the unpredictable, his work reflects rather than emulates nature.

Nickolai was born into a bucket of clay! He was raised in the family pottery (Lotte Glob) in the Far North West of Scotland. In 1986 worked with the Ceramic artist Erik Nyholm in Denmark. There he worked on large scale architectural ceramics and sculpture. Following Denmark, Nickolai studied traditional production under Tim Holloway where gained discipline in producing traditional, functional, wood fired, stoneware pottery whilst studying ceramics at Southampton University.

In 1989 Nickolai moved to Australia where he set up his own studio and produced sculptural ceramics and exhibited widely. During this time he worked closely with Thanakupi - Aboriginal Elder and international renowned ceramic artist. Now he has fused himself to The Isle of Harris, where the influence of his ironage nordic bogman ancestors have fluxed his Wabi-sabi pre-occupation to create his archaic works. His new work takes ceramics to the edge of craft, where sculpture and function merge. His high fired stoneware bowls and vessel forms become geological and carry in them a deep reflection of the terrain of the Hebrides.

The work produced in the studio is high fired stoneware, incorporating local minerals and fused glass. His techniques involve firing the ceramic pieces to very high temperatures, transforming the clay to a rock like material and fusing the glass with the clay. The subtle colours are achieved through careful use of metal oxides: cobalt, copper, manganese and iron. These innovative techniques create completely unique results. The work is vitrified and eternal, like stone. It will last for thousands of years, never fading, just remaining as a fragment of time, movement, energy and thought

Photo by Shannon Tofts.

Re-Soundings is presented here as part of the Hulabhaig Collection by kind permission of the artist.

https://mhairikillin.com/

Mhairi Killin

Mhairi works with drawing, print, sculpture and installation in an ongoing exploration of the landscapes that surround her and are her home. Her practice seeks to understand place from a specific perspective; one of inquiry into how belief structures - religious, mythopoeic, and socio-political - have shaped the physical and metaphysical landscapes she journeys through.

Residencies on several of the neighbouring islands to her home on Iona have developed her perception of island environments “as historical and mythological sites of convergence between elemental forces of nature, human life and the divine”.1 Through a digging down into the cultural ideology of place, her practice explores a consideration of “ the known world and the unknown world; one world viewed from a socio-historical perspective, and the other seen fleetingly through the wilderness, from a mythopoeic perspective”.2

Past work has explored the iconoclasm of the Reformation and its impact on the auditory landscapes of the islands of Lewis and Iona, http://www.resoundings.com

A recent focus has been on the presence of the MoD in the Hebrides and throughout 2021/2022, she has worked on a project commissioned by COMAR in partnership with the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust and in collaboration with composer Fergus Hall researching the impact of anthropogenic sound, during the NATO exercise Joint Warrior, on the behaviour of cetaceans in the Sea of the Hebrides.

The project sits within a wider question as to whether we can consider the extensive presence of the MoD in the Hebrides as a form of extraction; specifically has this very particular presence resulted in or been facilitated by a psychological disarticulation between a particular culture and its immediate environment and if so, what are the impacts on the ethnic and natural ecologies of that landscape?
1. Coburn, G. (2013) Geopoetics Journal, Stravaig #2. Retrieved from http://www.geopoetics.org.uk/online-journal/stravaig-issue-2/
2. Bateman, M (2012) The Otherworld. Series of Lectures. Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, UHI, 2012

Mhairi has exhibited globally and regularly works on commission and as artist in residences.

Full details can be seen on her website.

https://mhairikillin.com/biography

During my period of curating exhibitions at Baile na Cille church in Uig, I was keen to include audio visual work as much as possible and Fraser’s enigmatic imagery of an abandoned home in his film ‘Tiugainn Dachaidh’ fitted perfectly. Submitted to the Uig Open Winter Online Exhibition I was pleased when our selectors chose it for the Reasort Estate award.

Fraser then approached me with an idea for an immersive audio visual experience centred on the church itself. An experience I would have loved to have seen through, however the sale of the Baile na Cille church sadly prevented its progress.

https://frasermacbeath.squarespace.com/

https://www.instagram.com/frasermacbeath.av

Fraser MacBeath

Fraser MacBeath is an audiovisual artist, composer and field recordist from the Isle of Lewis. His practice looks in part to continue the legacy left by 20th-century field recordists who documented rural Scottish culture, while also using the material to create contemporary artworks that reflect modern realities.

Using the mediums of sound, film and installation, Fraser creates work which combines elements of sound art and ambient music with abstract film and immersive environments. His works often embody a dual nature. One which marries traditional elements with contemporary audiovisual technology. Creating narratives which weave past and present, evoking reflections on memory, sense of place, cultural identity, and the relationship between tradition and modernity.

Education
Master of Design 2021, Sound For The Moving Image, The Glasgow School of Art, Distinction (First Class).
Bachelor of Arts w/Honors 2022, Audio Production, SAE Institute Glasgow, 2.1 (Upper Second).

Awards
Royal Scottish Academy 197th Annual Exhibition, RSA Benno Schotz Prize for the most promising work by a Scottish artist under 35.
Hulabhaig Uig Open, Rèasort Estates Award, 2021.

‘Pentland Guardian’ is probably the best piece of conceptual art that I’ve seen since moving to the Isle of Lewis. A statement I’m happy to stand by, but find difficult to justify. It shouldn’t be, it’s a photograph of a man wearing a cardigan with a bucket on his head covered with sheep’s wool, what’s not to like, I love it.

For me conceptual art is the most powerful form of visual art, it draws me in, it asks questions which rarely have answers, there’s a need to find out more and delve deeper, I guess my logical mind needs answers so the artwork sends me on a journey and researching Danielle Macleod and her ‘Guardians’ didn’t disappoint.

https://www.daniellemacleodphoto.com/

Danielle Macleod

The Guardians is a series of 5 performance photographs created by Danielle Macleod for her ‘Guardians’ series, it was born from anti-religion and the artists need to understand her own spirituality.

The Pentland Guardian captures her own personal journey to seek and reconnect with the wildness in a new way. It reminds us of the experiences that continually unveil themselves around us if we’re not afraid to step into the wild.

“Creating the Pentland Guardian was an exploration of being playful and embracing risk taking. The journey of creating this image has informed the rest of my practice.”

Danielle Macleod is a mask maker and photographer based in the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. Her photography draws on traditional Hebridean culture, local stories and her upbringing on a windswept and untamed island on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

After graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 2020, Danielle returned to her home island and began her current practice of creating wearable sculptures from foraged and discovered natural materials. These masks and costumes are photographed and become personifications of the outer and inner wild. The models bring to life creatures that exist in an otherworld, demonstrating connection to one’s culture, tradition and place. Through working with found materials and shooting outdoors, Danielle has continued to deepen her spiritual relationship to this environment.

The folklore of the Hebrides has a rich oral tradition which generates stories that grow and change over time. Danielle’s images interpret this folklore in an alternative way that pays homage to these traditions in a visual format, and these stories she draws upon can continue to be reimagined as time moves on.

Education

Communication Design, Glasgow School of Art BA (Hons), 2016–2020

Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions • Legacy: Group Show for FLOW Photofest, Highland Print Studio, Inverness 2021 • RSA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, Edinburgh, 2022 • Street Level Open, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, 2022 • Na Boireannaich, by Danielle Macleod & Alice Macmillan, An Lanntair, 2022.

Solo Exhibitions • Guardians by Danielle Macleod, Island Darkroom, 2021 • Guardians by Danielle Macleod, McCallum Art House, Fort WIlliam, FLOW PHOTOFEST, 2021

Awards

The Scottish Artists’ Benevolent Association Award, 196th Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition

Photo by Alastair White

I visited Mary's studio on a bright clear March afternoon, I met her at her cottage, overlooking the Harris sound, as we walked down to her studio at her parents house she pointed out the future location of her soon to be built ‘Live in Studio’.

You can’t beat the wonderful fast flowing onslaught of ideas and concepts that flows from an artist in their studio, as Mary was flicking through old archived work, offering insights into her creative process and influences, I was catching snippets of new directions in current work, thoughts on work that had stalled, work that was waiting for resolution, all while drinking in the smell of paint thickening the creative air. I could have spent all day listening, looking and sensing, but a choice had to be made…

https://www.marymorrison.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/marymorrison.art/

https://andgallery.co.uk/artists/55-mary-morrison/

Mary Morrison

Mary Morrison is from the Outer Hebrides and much of her work draws from the space, light and elemental qualities which are unique to the islands. Her work suggests liminal spaces, edges, tidal lines - always shifting. She evokes a sense of place and natural forms through the use of materials which include oil, pigment and beeswax. Fluid paint effects often combine with graphic elements and annotation relating to mapping, measuring and music, creating an additional visual language and a tension within the paintings.

"I have recently moved back to the Isle of Harris where I grew up, after living away for most of my adult life. Along with profound personal and professional changes, this is now eliciting subtle but important shifts in my practice. Although my work over many years has been informed by this landscape and my relationship with it, it was from a distance and through the lens of dislocation.

Now I am here, immersed in this landscape and untangling the layers of identity relating to place, family, heritage, Gaelic language and community. These feed into my work both directly and indirectly and there is a re-evaluation going on, a conscious desire to develop a practice which is truly place based.

Some Gaelic words relate to concepts which I find useful to consider. Brigh /br-EEh/ is a Gaelic word which has various meanings including: essence, meaning, sense, significance and energy. 'The word brigh is often used when talking about songs and other works of art, and tells us something about the Gaelic aesthetic, in which meaning is the most important thing, rather than how beautiful something is.'

Moving back to Harris means I am engaged directly with the landscape here, acutely aware of sea, sky and weather shifts across the seasons, activating that 'string in the body' and the 'resonance of the hidden journey'."

I visited Màiri’s studio when she was living in High Borve on the north west coast of Lewis, she gave me a tour of her studio and I could see straight away how enthusiastic she was about her practice. I later invited her to create work for a show at Baile na Cille church in 2021 called ‘Plastic’ where I invited several island artists to respond to the issue of plastic within our environment. Màiri focused on a positive benefit of the material, using up-cycled animal feed tubs in her installation ‘Plastaig’ to hint at the ways crofters have always recycled and reused the materials to hand.

https://www.mairigillies.com/

https://www.instagram.com/mairi_nicgilliosa/

https://www.reothart.scot/

Màiri NicGillìosa

Màiri is an artist and Gaelic woman from the Lowlands of Scotland. She has a strong sense of home in the Gaeltachd and currently lives in Uig on the Isle of Lewis.
Her work spans across different mediums often with sculptural outcomes and her creative practice is embedded and embodied in ‘Place’, exploring Gaelic ways of seeing and our relationships between species and spaces.

"My arts practice is quiet activism, feminist in energy and strongly informed by Gael identity. I explore the Gaelic-feminist landscape - a space that considers how culture and nature interact, and how social relations are shaped by the land, belonging sensitively to a wider ecosystem.

I spend time outside in the landscape where I live in Lewis, moving bodily through the seasons, interacting with bedrock, flora, fauna and exploring the connections with people who have been in the same spaces before me- only separated by time.."

Màiri studied Sculpture at Edinburgh Collage of Art, Horticulture at SRUC and has a postgraduate Masters degree in 'Learning and Teaching Gaelic Arts' with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

In 2021 I had the pleasure of co-curating a touring exhibition with Kirsty Law called ‘Exposure’ at Baile na Cille church in Uig. A collaboration between musician, sound artist and photographer Giles Perring and filmmaker and painter Andy Metcalf, with work carried out, principally, on the Isle of Jura. Kirsty had seen one of Hulabhaig’s earlier curated shows at the church and had immediately contacted me asking to bring her touring show to Uig. An opportunity I couldn’t miss. And in return Giles gifted me one of his approval prints (Pelt), which I’m now proud to include in the collection.

http://exchangeart.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/gilesperring/

Giles Perring

Giles Perring is a musician, composer, educator and cross media artist. He is founder member of the sonic sculpture collective Echo City.

Their pioneering work in the creation of giant outdoor musical instruments and participatory music making, via their sonic playgrounds, saw them traverse play, performance, community and inclusive arts, installation art and recording over a career that began in Bethnal Green London, in 1983.  

As well as his work in Echo City, Giles has worked in sound and multimedia installations with collaborators like Susie Honeyman, John Cayley and Melanie Pappenheim. Giles and Susie installed the sound work ‘Marsh Music’ in their joint show with Jock MacFadyen, Iain Sinclair and Anthony Gormley at London’s Wapping Project, which they followed up with a Jerwood Commission for music to accompany ‘Black Flag’, an exhibition of monolithic images by photographer Annabel Elgar at the Wapping Project. With the digital text artist John Cayley and the singer Melanie Pappenheim, he has created various works for installation in the UK, Brazil, US and Germanys and online.  

His composition credits include commissions for Salisbury Festival Chorus and La Folea, Covent Garden Festival, and in 2011, The Tall Ships Race. He composed a very successful portfolio of music for the Extreme Music Library which located his work in TV shows like ‘Sex and The City’ and ‘Lost’.  As a performer, he has worked with performers and groups as diverse as industrial music’s enfant terrible Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey, the electronica duo Unmen, which he founded with Nick Cash, award winning contemporary choir The Shout, and free jazz titan Alan Wilkinson.

The Artists

Rhea Banker

Sarah Bold

Beka Globe

Nickolai Globe

Sandra Kennedy

Mhairi Killin

Fraser MacBeath

Calum Angus Mackay

Danielle Macleod

Andy Metcalf

Mary Morrison

Màiri NicGillìosa

Giles Perring

Deljeem Rai