A while ago, I signed up to be sent information from the UHI Archaeology Institute – anyone can sign up to this, and it means that you’ll be notified about all kinds of interesting things which are happening or planned in the world of Orkney archaeology
This exhibition looked right up our street – cairns, coast….two of our favourite things.
Also, we’d never heard of the Clook Gallery, but found out where Clook Road is – off Outertown Road. Then wondered where the name came from and looked it up
“Clook derives from old local land/mining designations, historically associated with the 18th-century Clook Lead Mine area near the Warbeth coast.”
I remembered mentioning a lead mine at Warbeth in this piece.
One thing leads to another!
Having worked out where it is, we went along and walked through a big red door into a room full of wonders
This piece of text presents the ideas behind this piece of work
We then proceeded clock-wise round the room
All the ’rope’ in the room is made from seaweed which Jemima hand-coils then twists together on an implement lent to her by Mark Shiner, Curriculum Leader for Maritime Studies at UHI Orkney
Jemima sought to explore how ancient peoples might have used seaweed to make rope.
They probably used anything they could make use of – one of my Mother’s many wise sayings was…..’Necessity is the mother of invention’.
Next, central to the space, a panel made from seaweed
And a panel made from tanned fish skin
These had light projected onto them to show the effect of light through them – maybe used as ‘windows’ in the past?
In the corner, what Jemima refers to as a ‘multi-species assemblage’ of seaweed rope, salmon skin and stones.
The smell of dried seaweed from this panel took me straight back to a memory of when my Dad would buy a bag of dried Dulce from a wooden hand-cart on the street in Ballina. We’d then sit and eat some, together – the rest to the family wouldn’t touch it!
For how long had people in that area been eating dried seaweed? As well as cooking with it, using Carraigin Moss …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrus_crispus
….and digging it into their veg patches as fertilizer
I think this must be my favourite piece…..seaweed rope…a wooden chopping block…a piece of stone cradled by seaweed rope, and tiny little fish vertebrae
Then, by the wall, a table with a fish-skin kite flying over it!
displaying some of the art-work produced by Jemima whilst digging at The Cairns this year – catching the life of the place
The Cairns – Sleeps
Our Dancing Floor is covered
The Well of Wishes – sealed.
Our place, so long neglected
Is starting to be Healed.
We’ll sleep – in Dreamtime
The winter weather through.
Next year – Sometime –
They will return.
And then, we’ll wake
Our place will wake
To youth and light.
Red hair, dark hair
Gleam of light on bronze,
Beads, and benediction of burnished bowl.
We’ll dance again
Weave new life
For the land.
They are Us
And We are They.
Namaste
BB 2019
Also central to the space – a table displaying tanned salmon skins, coils of seaweed rope, examples of Jemima’s work, two catalogues containing images from the exhibition….. and more
And then we went out through the in door
The exhibition is now over, but Jemima has a website where you can see her work and info. about her foraging walks and workshops….
Leave a Reply