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Creative Works and Exhibitions
Over the years, I have taken part in a variety of exhibitions, such as our annual UAA summer shows, our annual Artist Cooperative pop up exhibitions here in Sollas,
travelling UAA exhibitions to mainland Scotland and the Northeast of England, exchange exhibitions in Germany and exhibitions as part of artist and translation residencies.
ICA exhibition in Inverness October 2023
I have loved our theme 'Surfacing' because it pushed me into a direction I have not explored before - incorporating beach finds into book covers! I have incorporated both natural and industrial materials into traditional book structures such as sand, fish netting, rubber gloves, bale wrapping, drift wood… whatever the beach reveals on my early morning dog walks.
In my artist papers I play with rock, water and seaweed patterns whilst the very process of making these papers with the melting of wax with ink and dyes echoes the melting of sediments in the formation of rocks defining the Uist shore line and the fluid movements and patterns of the underwater shore.
For other book structures, I have recreated views from a beach or markings in the sand and the process of making felt very much like painting with bookbinding materials. Through binding my books, I explore my relationship with the island spaces that surround me and the impact they have on me whilst noticing the constant little reminders of how we as humans never fail to shape the natural world around us.
There are four book structures at the heart of this body of work - the coptic binding (a series of water, sand and rock books to create a beach), twin books (my fish net books), belt books (fish net, seaweed and rock papers) and last but not least the buttonhole bindings. These last ones have been a revelation and such a joy to play with, inlaying und underlaying, openings into covers, bringing the inside of the book out and play with the colours of the interleaving.
My artist partners in crime are Catherine Yeatman, Fergus Granville, Fiona Pearson, Marnie Keltie and Sheenagh Patience. You can see more pics of my work and the journey of making in my instagram page here.
From the Western Isles to the East End of London
@ Espacio Gallery in Shoreditch, London
from 25th May - 4th of June 2021, open 11 am - 7pm
North Uist is one of the islands in the remote Outer Hebridean archipelago. It’s dominated by water - both by the surrounding sea and by a myriad of freshwater lochs, and also by wide open skies. It’s both a challenging and rewarding place to live and our exhibition will bring an impression of this to the very contrasting environment of London. This will be through the experience of four artists inspired by the same place, but using very different and engaging approaches to express this - the artists are: Fergus Granville, Fiona Pearson, Marnie Keltie and myself sollasbooks
Playing with traditional binding techniques and adapting them in my response to our theme “Hebridean Spaces” has been a real joy. In my attempt to show some of the facets of life and the more immediate realities of 2020 which ring most true with me within the space that is the Hebrides, I have incorporated new materials into traditional book structures such as sand, netting, fish farm overalls and creel hooks as well as adapting traditional techniques such as foil embossing to employ them in a more personal and expressive way.
Along the way, I found myself more and more excited by how books relate to each other and tell a story as a whole when displayed together. In binding these books, I was able to understand my relationship with the spaces that surround me a little better and to communicate its nature with others through the medium of the book and I found room to play... ;)
Fergus Granville:
Website: www.fergusgranville.com
Fiona Pearson:
Website: www.uistfiona.com
Marnie Keltie:
Website: www.marniekeltie.co.uk
One exhibition closest to my heart is the ‘Creag agus Uisge / Rock and Water / Fels und Wasser’ exhibition. A group of artists from North Uist and Germany formed after an artist exchange in 2017 to respond to the places that are surrounding us here in Uist. The exhibition showed in Dundas Street Gallery in Edinburgh in January 2019, then at Taigh Chearsabhagh in Uist in May 2019 and also in Templin, Germany in July/August 2020.
In response to the theme I created a series of ‘rock’ books and boxes. In an unearthing of patterns and accidentals, many layers of ink, dyes and wax create a paper with a rich and deep texture evocative of rock patterns and the melting of sediments visible in each tiny pebble on the beach. In working with different structures I explored, in the words of artist Keith McIntyre, ‘… the geology of bookbinding’ making ‘geo-books and treasure boxes - knowledge vessels for capturing our imagination; our thoughts, stories, precious objects. Each echo the enormous forces that created, folded and scarred the Lewisian Gneiss and Basalt that shaped the landscape around Krause’s studio.’
Another lovely and very engaging project was a creative commission from the newly established Uist Wool to make books which use and showcase their tweed and yarn. Over the last few years these book structures have evolved and are now a firm part of my repertoire. I love the combination of leather and tweed in the cross structures creating a very tactile object which is in harmony with the deckled edges of the inner book itself with the colours playing off each other. I love the yarn wrapping around journals covered in recycled leather cloth suggesting a hint of secrecy. And again, the tweed coptic books with sewn headbands have a very tactile feel to it. These books are only available in my own studio and in the Uist Wool www.uistwool.com shop which is well worth a visit!
