In time of the Anthropocene, amid climate breakdown and mass extinction I
feel that making art – perhaps creativity of any kind – is a hopeful act. By
combining aspects of contemporary physical theory with an interest in how
language and stories constitute our sense of place, I hope to excite the
ecological imagination with what Jane Bennett called “ambitious naiveté”
(Bennett 2010)

Emerging at the nexus of fine art, dark ecology and quantum physics my work
often includes salvaged materials and found objects – re-imagined to produce
sculptural assemblages, which carry a poetic meaning and perhaps serve as
translation devices to help  upgrade our
intuitions and sharpen our awareness of 
alternate ways of seeing and being in the world.

Perhaps expanding our temporal horizons and increasing our sensitivity to
the strange vitality of matter we might foster a sense of enchantment, and
perhaps a deeper connection with the earth and all life with which we are
intimately connected.

In the words of Martha Rosler,  I hope
to “rupture the false boundaries between ways of thinking about art and ways of
actively changing the world.”

I
want to source some funding to make a Wilson Cloud Chamber*, travel to Lewis and Harris to collect a
sample of ‘Pitchblende’ (radioactive Uranium compound) from the Mt Roineabhal*
and use the device to visualise the ionising radiation.  I will collaborate with Mhari Law who has a
darkroom on Lewis and experiment with various photographic films / plates /
resins to create a kind of assisted self-portrait or (synecdoche
–radio-autograph) of the mountain. I will produce a series of works for exhibition
in An Lantair in Stornoway. And Summerhall in Edinburgh have expressed support
for the project

Building
the chamber with elegant design, quality finish and the right
technical specs for extended periods of use is the priority. I have spoken
with a qualified technical expert who is keen to be involved and has given me a
quote for labour and materials which I will include the in the application (It
will take the entire £1500 grant so I will find match funding to cover
additional costs for travel /imaging / developing / processing film including
materials and darkroom hire as well as printing and installation.

*particle
detector Invented in Edinburgh1911 by Nobel Prize winning
Scottish Physicist Charles Wilson used for visualising the passage of ionising
radiation

**(the
site was the subject of 13 year public enquiry known as “the Battle for
Roneabhal which saw a small group of islanders successfully stop a proposed
super quarry that would have reduced the mountain to 10 million tonnes of
gravel by deploying explosive power equivalent to 10 Hiroshima bombs) 

how will this develop my practice? and what to i want to achieve in the long term? 

This
is the beginning of an ambitious project that would be a major steppingstone in
my career as an artist.

I
want to continue to make truthful place-based work that grows in scale to reach
steadily larger audiences and builds on creative relationships I made during a
successful residency in Northern Japan last year.

Having
the cloud chamber would enable a continuation of my research into the ‘vibrant
matter’ and the beginning of an exploration into the idea of ‘haunted
landscapes’.

This
project could lead back to Japan where I would like to do a series of portraits
of abandoned sites – pairing a kind of camera-less direct-to-film photography
with images of ionising nuclear radiation created by placing samples of soil or
sand or small found objects into the cloud-chamber to produce abstract images
(Abstract in the sense that they are nonrepresentational and yet there will be
a profoundly material connection to place as the images would be a physical
trace- created precisely by the invisible energy that they represent.

“Ghosts
point to our forgetting, showing us how living landscapes are imbued with
earlier tracks and traces… ghosts remind us we live in an impossible present -
a time of rupture, a world haunted with the threat of extinction” 
Anna Tsing

Is there a public element to this proposal? 

An lantair in Stornoway have invited me to
a residency for the duration of the project and are interested to exhibit the
results pending decision by the curatorial team. (I showed some sculptures
there on the theme of Roineabhal as part of a group show a few years ago)

Also I applied for the “Right-Here”
Scottish documentary institute fund to make a half hour film:  ‘Dig Where You Stand” (Inspired by Soil and
Soul, By Alistair Macintosh) that would document the process of making the work
along with a kind of pilgrimage to the mountain with Alistair. (He has already
expressed an interest in participating and if successful the film will be
broadcast on BBC Scotland)

On the face of it it’s a project about commemorating a
battleground and celebrates community spirit and the strange invisible ‘mytho-poettic’
power of a mountain  - but beneath it all its about sounding out a new
Scottish identity that expands our temporal horizons and finds that the cure
for the prevalent existential insecurities and ecological anxieties of the
Anthropocene might be right under our feet.