From Bartholomew Barker…..From Kilmorack Gallery…. From ‘Right to Roam’…..
by Bernie Bell - 08:22 on 20 September 2023
From Bartholomew Barker…..From Kilmorack Gallery…. From ‘Right to Roam’…..
Thoughts while Floating Face Up
Floating face up in a lake
on an early autumn night
If I don't stare at the girl
galaxy next door I can just see
the smudge of Andromeda's ancient light
like a threadbare nightgown
Ears underwater hear muffled
details of snoring fish
and snakes undulating
across tepid waves
But I keep sinking so I must paddle
to keep the peace and avoid the rings
of cordless telephones and blatherskites
bragging on the evening talk news shows
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From Kilmorack Gallery….
“Landscape artists are vital. By studying and painting sky, sea and land, they remind us of its importance. Painting the land, or making pots from it, is timeless. It is an art that is ancient, modern and future-facing: a navigational light to steer us to a better world. Landscape, the physical world with its rich ecosystems, will hopefully be there long after you and I are gone.
Kilmorack Gallery has timed this exhibition - Borrowed Land - to run when Scotland's landscape is at its greatest threat since the clearances. Giant multi-national companies threaten to build electrical substations the size of university campuses, along with 60m high pylon lines hundreds of miles long, and soon after will come the transformation of hills into power stations with a new generation of mega-turbines.
Kilmorack is in a unique position because we are in regular contact with artists across the whole of Scotland, including the often underrepresented northern artists, and those from the islands and other rural areas. They know the land better than anyone and, because of this love, they have much to offer.
Curation includes the ecstatic artists, and some who see it as a metaphor, a few who live the tides and moons, some who incorporate its body into their work. There are tree worshipers, physicists and intuitive poets of abstraction. Landscape and how we belong to it is maybe the oldest and only story ever written. We hope our exhibition 'Borrowed Land' which runs throughout the winter of 2023-24 will reflect this.
Tony Davidson
Exhibiting artists
Ade Adesina
Shona Barr
Paul Bloomer
Patricia Paolozzi Cain
Peter Davis
Lotte Glob
Gail Harvey
Janette Kerr
Liz Knox
Allan MacDonald
Jane MacNeill
Robert McAulay
Illona Morrice
Beth Robertson Fiddes
Ann Oram
Iona Roberts
Lizzie Rose
Rose Strang
Patrica Shone
Wendy Sutherland
Allison Weightman
Peter White
Christopher Wood
This will be a stunning exhibition, with work by some of Scotland's most desirable artists and it is only our first investigation into artists and the power of landscape. Please let us know if there if we can do anything to assist. We are currently working on a catalogue (with essays and artists' quotes) to accompany this exhibition, which will be available from mid-October, and we will put together a press pack as further essays reach the gallery over the next month.
Kilmorack Gallery was established in 1997 by Tony Davidson and since then has found a unique place in Scottish art, showing some of the most interesting and diverse artists to be found anywhere, and always finding new ways to bring work to international audiences. 'Art should exist beyond borders,' Tony believes.
In October 2022 Tony Davidson's multiple-shortlisted memoir Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer was published.
Kilmorack Gallery, by Beauly, Inverness-shire IV4 7AL
+44 (0) 1463 783 230
Always open by appointment. Full opening times online.
Exhibitions & Arrivals
Gallery Artists
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From ‘Right to Roam’…..
“Borders, Books & Bagpipes
Dear Roamers,
As mushrooms pop through the woodland floor and the spiders creep indoors, the Right to Roam den has been a scamper of activity. We prepared our forthcoming trespass of the Anglo-Scottish border, launched a 'Right to Foam' soap (yes you read that right) and took the literary world by storm!
Read on to hear more…
MASS TRESPASS OF THE ANGLO-SCOTTISH BORDER
This week we look north to Scotland, where the right to roam (or, more technically, the ‘right of responsible access’) is enjoying its twentieth anniversary. The Land Reform Act, passed by the newly established Scottish parliament in 2003, is a major influence on our campaigning and we believe it’s time one of its core principles - a ‘default’ right of access subject to sensible exceptions - was brought to England and the rest of the UK.
That’s why this Saturday we’re headed to the Anglo-Scottish border, "trespassing" the English side while exercising our lawful rights on the Scottish. Criss-crossing the border, we’ll be poking fun at the contrasting approaches of the two nations, culminating in a ceremonial handover of our newly scribed Right to Roam Act from our Scottish supporters.
Afterwards, we’ll be hosted by the Langholm Initiative, a community trust which successfully bought out 10,500 acres of land previously owned by the Duke of Buccleuch. They have been restoring it for nature and community benefit ever since. We’ll be hearing from some of Scotland’s great land reformers and entertained by local folk singers.
RIGHT TO FOAM
We’ve teamed up with LUSH, the ethical cosmetics company, to spread the campaign’s message through high streets across the country. Head to your local LUSH store to pick up a free Trespass Guide, complete with a beautiful fold-out poster from our illustrator and co-founder, Nick Hayes.
While there, you can also purchase up a bespoke ‘Right to Foam’ soap, moulded in the shape of a footpath sign, with all proceeds donated to support our campaign.
WAINWRIGHT TO ROAM
Finally, some happy news this week as two members of the Right to Roam team were awarded the prestigious Wainwright Prize, winning both the Conservation and Nature Writing categories. Guy for The Lost Rainforests of Britain and Amy for The Flow. The entanglement of access and ecology are strong themes in both books and neither could have been written without a… flexible attitude to existing access laws.
If you’d like a copy of Amy’s book, her publisher Bloomsbury is offering a 25% discount to Right to Roam supporters. Simply use the promo code ROAM25 when ordering through their website.
On which note… we’ve written our own book! Stay tuned for more details in the coming months…
Jon
& the Right to Roam Team
To follow us on social media:
Twitter: @Right_2Roam
Instagram: right.2roam
Facebook: right2roam
Take me to the Right to Roam website ”
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/03/03/from-orkney-to-london/
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