Sea Change (Tionndadh na Mara)
Sea Change is a four-year Cape Farewell programme of research and making across Scotland’s western and northern isles
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Artist Diaries
Conversations, Collaboration, Research
James Brady. though everything was gone, we would stay
‘The essence of Orkney’s magic is silence, loneliness and the deep marvellous rhythms of sea and land, darkness and light’ George Mackay Brown See the film here: though everything was gone, we would stay Artist and curator James Brady joined the 2013 Northern Isles expedition, sailing from Orkney to Shetland via Fair Isle on Shetland community-owned... Read More ›
Mathematics, making and birding
Deirdre Nelson
Fair Isle bird made by Tommy H Hyndman At Da Fishin’ Hands premiere at the community hall I noticed a beautiful Fair Isle jumper in shades of mossy green and later discovered that the wearer was Inges grandfather Stewart, a retired Light House Keeper, fiddle player, spinner and spinning wheel maker. His wife Annie... Read More ›
Fair Isle treasures
deirdre nelson
On Saturday morning we made our way to the rock pool at at Muckle Uri Geo. Ready and waiting were a group of young islanders armed with small fishing nets alongside Nick Riddiford, a passionate Fair Isle ecologist. As they dispersed on their mission, Nick told us about the area and the many species... Read More ›
‘An eye to the Windward’: Sea Change on Fair Isle
Ruth Little
Anne Sinclair points at a narrow yellow pine door leaning against a wall in the Fair Isle Museum: ‘When I was growing up, nearly all the internal doors in people’s houses were from shipwrecks.’ Fair Isle may be largely treeless, but there’s wood to be had. Over some 5000 years of settlement here, the sea... Read More ›
Data and culture rich
Deirdre Nelson
Due to a rather atmospheric blanket of fog I arrived into Fair Isle two days and 1 hour late. From my first glimpses of the island from the ferry, it was well worth the wait, and Inge Thompson, on a break during rehearsals and preparations for her performance Da Fishing Hands, was there to greet... Read More ›
Lost Birds and Fishing Hands: Getting our Bearings on Fair Isle
Ruth Little
It’s a Caspian Stonechat, and it’s lost. Its feathers are spiked with rain, and it seems to have a hacking cough. It’s been on Fair Isle for a month, and the word around the island is that it’s unlikely to see the Caspian Sea again. ‘Blown off course, all of them’, says one of... Read More ›
Grounded (Freumhaichte/Wadlu-Gnana). Judith Parrott
An Lanntair, Stornoway: 13 September - 11 October
Grounded is an exhibition of photographic prints, audiovisual, sound and prose, resulting from residencies with Gaelic speaking communities of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and with Wangkangurru, Arrarnta and Arrernte people of the Central Australian Desert. The exhibition was launched at XX Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014. Follow Judith’s Grounded blog at http://judithparrott.wordpress.com/ Arriving in Steòrnabhagh (Stornoway) The... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/ Tìr mo Rùin – Kacper Kowalski shortlisted for Sony World Photography Awards
Artist Diary 1 November - Kacper Kowalksi. Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines
Congratulations to aerial photographer Kacper Kowalski, who took to the skies of Lewis to photograph the peatlands for his Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin commission. Kacper has been nominated for the Sony World Photography Awards 2014: : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-25983313 Those magnificent men in their flying machines Some people call him an aerial photographer. We call him a crazy... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin
Artist Diary 18 October - Jon Macleod. Territory – Dùthaich
I have started writing this moor blog whilst on a residency in St.Kilda. It seems that both these places have become defined by the notion of remoteness and as such are comparable. Also the language, culture and archaeology of both are largely shared. To fully experience both St. Kilda and the Moor it is necessary... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin
Artist Diary 25 July - Murray Robertson. Off the Pentland Road
The Pentland Road traverses Lewis running east to west, from Stornoway to Carloway, and neatly bisects the core of the peatlands allowing access to one of the most unique natural environments in Northern Europe. From the road the moorland looks rugged, wild and impenetrable. The leviathan blanket bog that covers most of Northern Lewis breathes... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin
Artist Diary 4 August - Alex Boyd. The Emerging Island
As the ferry made its slow and stately progress across the expanse of The Minch, and the great peaks of Skye’s mountains gradually settled towards the horizon, I couldn’t help but stand transfixed at the view which stretched before me. The Outer Hebrides is somewhere which until this week I had never experienced, save through... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin
Artist Diary 3 August - Anne Campbell. Moorland diary
March. NB 2976 3817. A pool where two streams emerge from beneath the peat – the source of the water which flows to Loch na Mòineach, which in turn feeds Feadan Loch na Mòineach, which joins Feadan Loch an Fhraoich and Feadan Loch nam Breac to form Gleann Thorradail, one of the tributaries of Gleann... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin
Pàipear-taighe - Deirdre Nelson
See more of Deirdre’s work at http://cargocollective.com/dstitch twitter.com/dstitch 6 October: Pàipear-taighe I have been gathering imagery of all the small things from the moor and on my last visit to Lewis I visited Alison Macleod in her studio. She is a textile designer/artist from The Isle of Lewis whose designs are inspired by her... Read More ›
Sexy Peat/Tìr mo Rùin
Artist Diary 24 July - Fabric Lenny Sketchbook
Follow Fabric Lenny’s Peatland blog: http://fabriclenny.blogspot.co.uk/ 24 July: iPad to Press – Photo Polymer Photogravure After having had a few days to reflect on my time in Scotland as part of the Sexy Peat project, I can now reveal that it was a truly amazing experience. The two weeks on Lewis exploring the Peatlands and... Read More ›
Sea Change 2012: interdependence
Thank you to everyone involved in Sea Change 2012: artists, arts and science organisations, local communities and funders. Here’s a map of some of the artist-led activity over the year; as Scotland debates the important issue of political independence, we’re voting for the ecological interdependence of people, places and resources! Wishing everyone a happy... Read More ›
Air falbh leis na h-eòin – Away with the Birds
Artist Diary: Daniel Warren
No film can be too personal. The image speaks. Sound amplifies and comments. Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim. An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude. Free Cinema 1 manifesto, February 1956 I’m not really one for writing a diary or a blog, and there are already good writers involved... Read More ›
A celebration of GalGael
Sunday 27 January 2013, Govan, Glasgow
An afternoon of song and story about boats, journeys and navigating change, in celebration of GalGael’s traditional boat-building and furniture-making project in the heart of Glasgow’s former shipbuilding community. With Bird Yarns, Mary Jane Lamond, Wendy MacIsaac, Mary Smith, Inge Thomson, Hanna Tuulikki, Nerea Bello, Allan Macdonald, Nuala Kennedy, Kathleen MacInnes, Alec Finlay. ‘ What a... Read More ›
Machair. Hugh Harwood
Machair is a complex eco-system situated on low-lying coastline, comprised of sand with a high proportion of shell fragments (sometimes 80 or 90 % making it fertile). Machair has developed with the effects of strong winds combined with just the right amount of rainfall and, most crucially, the involvement of people and their grazing... Read More ›
It’s the Skin You’re Living In installation tour 2013 – David Harradine / Fevered Sleep / Fuel
See the film here, via Fevered Sleep
See the film here: It’s the Skin You’re Living In It’s the Skin You’re Living In is a multi-format film project, that explores and challenges existing images of climate change. Shot in a series of locations from the islands of Svalbard in the High Arctic to a kitchen in a house in London – via... Read More ›
Bird Yarns inspires ‘Tern’, by musician Mick Slaven: Listen here
Deirdre Nelson: Artist Diary March 2013
Tern, written and performed by Mick Slaven Listen here Copyright control Mick Slaven, 2013: www.trickyhat.com/mick–slaven.html Riding the Breeze Bird Yarns made a brief landing at Letham Nights in Fife late last year and managed to share the stage with Coal Town Daisies and The Bevvy Sisters. Letham nights aims to bring high quality music to... Read More ›
Ian Stephen and Christine Morrison in Travelling Light at An Talla Solais, Ullapool
20 April - 19 May
Ian Stephen and Christine Morrison present new work, supported by Sea Change, as part of Travelling Light at An Talla Solais, Ullapool, an exhibition and art activities inspired by the sailor’s ditty box. http://www.antallasolais.org/travelling-light An Talla Solais Market Street Ullapool IV26 2XE Acts of Trust wins award in British Awards for Storytelling Excellence The... Read More ›
Hear Stephen Hurrel on Radio 4
Listen on BBC iPlayer
Listen to Stephen Hurrel discussing his artist residency at the University of Aberdeen Lighthouse Field Station, Cromarty. Part of BBC Radio 4’s Saving Species series. Read More ›
Air falbh leis na h-eòin – Away with the Birds
Hanna Tuulikki's Complete Audio Diary
28 June 2013 Listen here to an extract from Hanna’s diary: Voices at Dusk https://archive.capefarewell.com/seachange/wp-content/uploads/canna-diary-extract-13.mp3 29 May 2013 Listen here to an extract from Hanna’s diary: Tracing Lines https://archive.capefarewell.com/seachange/wp-content/uploads/canna-diary-extract-121.mp3 19 April 2013 The creation of Air falbh leis na h-eòin: Hanna on tumblr 14 January 2013 Listen here to an extract from Hanna’s diary:... Read More ›
‘Particle’ (Things Unseen). Anne Bevan
3 Aug – 16 Sept 2012
Solo exhibition by Anne Bevan with Shetland Arts (Bonhoga Gallery) and the Shetland Museum and Archive (Pier Store). An installation of sculpture, print and video exploring the microscopic world of our shores and oceans, from the North Atlantic to the Sea of Japan. Anne has collaborated on the project with Dr Kate Darling from the... Read More ›
Ditty Boxes. John Cumming, Cecil Tait in Travelling Light at An Talla Solais, Ullapool
20 April - 19 May 2013
Shetland/Orkney sculptor John Cumming and Shetland furniture maker Cecil Tait collaborate on Ditty Boxes, an installation based on the hand-made sailors’ boxes designed to hold treasured possessions on hazardous ocean voyages. The ditty boxes have now travelled from Shetland Museum and Archives, Lerwick, to Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney, and on to Künstlerhaus, Dortmund, before returning... Read More ›
Topologies of Air – Ruith Na Gaoithe. Shona Illingworth residency at Taigh Chearsabhagh
Symposium/event November 2013
‘…the act of envisioning an object or an action in terms of an ecology or lifecycle (whether in a banal commercial sense or within a creative research project) ultimately challenges the classification of that object as a product.’ Jill Bennett, Living in the Anthropocene, 2011 Shona’s project for the Cape Farewell Sea Change project will... Read More ›
CARBON 12
4 May – 16 Sept 2012
CARBON 12, Cape Farewell’s new exhibition opens at Espace Foundation EDF, Paris on 3rd May, with work focusing on the vital exchange between artists and scientists. The exhibition encompasses biodiversity, atmospherics and oceanography – earth, wind and sea. Five artists who have worked with climate scientists exhibit their artworks alongside the scientific enquiry. Artists Lucy... Read More ›
Bird Yarns. Deirdre Nelson
Artist Diary - Arctic terns descend on Glasgow Botanics!
Birdyarns is gathering supporters and followers with each and every landing, each time making connections in new, exciting and unexpected ways . Recently singer Jo Mango (uk.myspace.com/jomango) got in touch having spotted Creative Scotland’s post about the birds landing in Glasgow. Much of her songwriting involves birds in one way or another so she... Read More ›
Bird Yarns Photo Diary
Artist Diaries. 21 June 2012
21 June 2012 The days are long, bright and cool on Tobermory: only 4 hours of darkness between last gull and first dove call. Down in the harbour boats swing on the wind; clouds sit over Ardnamurchan and Morven across the Sound of Mull. On the fisherman’s pier a... Read More ›
Air falbh leis na h-eòin – Away with the Birds
Artist Diary: Geoff Sample
See Olivia Uney’s Canna photographs: http://www.cannamousephotography.co.uk 8 June 2012 Listen to White-Tailed eagles, Canna. Recorded by Geoff Sample https://archive.capefarewell.com/seachange/wp-content/uploads/WTeagle_Canna1.mp3 The deep throb of the ferry’s engines provides an accompaniment to the journey and transports us from the known mainland to the unknown island. Leaving the harbour we leave man-made noise and a wide-open Atlantic insular... Read More ›
Bird Yarns. Mary Jane Lamond
Artist Diary - Flying in from Nova Scotia
11 June 2012 Just a little news on the Cape Breton flock below…I drove down to Sydney (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) yesterday to meet up with Janice MacKay and Kelly Krawchuk to pick up the Cape Breton flock of Arctic Terns. We met up in a pub and had a great visit, some food and... Read More ›
Ditty Boxes. John Cumming, Cecil Tait
Artist Diary: John Cumming on Ditty Boxes at the Künstlerhaus, Dortmund
24 February 2013 On the invitation of Imi Maufe and Rona Rangsch, joint curators of this themed exhibition, The Ditty Boxes formed part of “Voyage – sea journeys, island hopping and trans-oceanic concepts “, at the Künstlerhaus, Dormund. I travelled, via Copenhagen, to Dortmund for the hanging and opening of this show. Most of the... Read More ›
Supported by
- Jon and NoraLee Sedmak
- With the support of the
Culture Programme of the European Union
as part of the Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA) 
