Art in context: dialogues in Lorne, on Mull and Environs. 

The Well at the World’s End (a walk with Alexander Maris to Uamh Nam Marbh, Iona) - visual response/ short note 

The walk with Maris to uamh nam marbh in June 2019 has stimulated in me, a deeper response to the concept of ‘place’. 

It stimulated a different sort of response to an environment from the visceral act of making works in response to terrain, to thinking about the psychogeography of (a) place and my presence within that territory. 

The on-going dialogue has given my work more depth of meaning, establishing new creative projects in relation to Lorne, in particular the Isle of Mull. I have created new works in response to the flora/fauna, weather, presence of death and lunar and tidal cycles. The walk continues to stimulate an expansion of my knowledge of this island, enhancing my appreciation of the concurrent links between the physiological and the mythological environs of Lorne. The experience of this walk and the dialogues spoken have informed voids within my practice, creating space for depth of reason and understanding within my work. 

The walk sparked a thought that the literal act of walking can become poetry; interaction with terrain, human memory, experience, nature, sound, movement, breath and thought; are poems. 

A poem has become a way to describe what it is to be human. Through my own inheritance of poetry (specifically my Grandmother’s poems, which I only discovered after her death) the idea of a poem has become a tool in which to provide understanding and a sense of connectivity with people and place. The expanse and flow of words help me to break down connections with surrounding environs and people and gain a sense of the time a person spent in a place, be that literal or metaphorical. Perhaps the Ogham is poetry, the language of the trees and its people. A language of nature. 

As an emerging Artist who has chosen to move back to Argyll after graduating, being a part of this on-going dialogue with Cultural Documents and the Maris’s is integral for the future of my creative practice. I am establishing an alignment of thought within the direction of my work, making time for critical reflection and discussion about the concepts of my work and creating a connection to other Artists, in this rural context. This is very difficult to do without these platforms and events, the walk in June, and the dialogue with Deirdre MacKenna. 

Argyll and the Isles hold such a vast cultural, linguistic and ecological richness. Platforms like Cultural Documents are integral to the future of our rural creative communities in Scotland. For me, something that is fundamental to the sustenance of Artists and Creative folk who have chosen to live in a rural reality is the prospect of creating studio spaces/ a hub for creativity, grant writing support and entrepreneurial business skill sharing workshops, and of course funding. Argyll and the Isles need more platforms like that of Cultural Documents to make a space for all artists to engage and network within a rural setting; a support system giving contemporary context to rurally based Artists. 

Key words: #Progressive focussing #Heritage #Human memory in Terrain #Psychogeography of Place #Rituals and presence of death in West Coast culture and society #Systems of symbolism and representation #Site-Specific #Land-Art #Art and the Environment #Cultural politics #Identity/ Language #Folklore #Ogham Alphabet (each letter named after a tree) #Walking as practice #Walking as Art #Walking as Poetry #Mythological narratives #nature of memory #story telling #Island as studio/ Landscape as studio/ Seascape as Studio #Physical experience of the terrain; connecting people to place and to each other #Lorne/ Argyll as a territory of pilgrimage #Eilean Nan Ban | Island of Women #Concepts of landscape in cultural history and myth #Mass grave of female skeletons #Rurality