In Island Spirituality, Alastair McIntosh talks about the sacred landscape of Lewis as evidenced through place names and oral histories, imbued with sanctity and extant for us to trace through the landscape, guided by their names.[1] For the past few days we have been walking in the landscape, guided by such place names and aided by some generous local knowledge. We have visited a network of medieval chapels, evocative of St. Oran’s on Iona and also areas of landscape, suchRead more

  Last week four WWI brass shell casings arrived at the studio on Iona. The casings will be the raw material for a bell like structure based on the form of the early Christian hand bells. One of the shells has the mark, “Magdeburg”. Magdeburg, in Germany, was one of the most important medieval cities in Europe. It was also home to a large munitions factory, which supplied the German military in WWI and WWII. If it’s possible to have anRead more

Images show medieval carvings displayed on the north wall of the chapel and a tomb recess on the south wall. The installation was projected onto the east facing altar wall. There is some time now to reflect on the work on Iona before the research takes us to Lewis later in the month. During the three days of the installation in St. Oran’s Chapel over six hundred people viewed the work and just under a hundred people have visited the ReRead more

Today is the final day of the installation at St.Oran’s Chapel. We’ve had around 200 visitors each day and the work has changed in intensity depending on the quality of light coming in from the chapel’s north and south windows. We’ve invigilated the space every day and it has been really enjoyable to watch how visitors respond to the work. Being in the space and being able to respond to questions and curiosity around the work has been really important and weRead more

Today we installed the video and sound installation in St. Oran’s Chapel, which will run from 12 noon till 4pm, Friday 3rd July till Sunday 5th July. This coincides with the Iona Village Hall Music Festival and we are hoping that around three hundred people will see the work, some of whom attended our open event yesterday. St. Oran’s, which dates from the 12th century, is the oldest surviving building on Iona and it is thanks to Historic Scotland thatRead more

Sunshine, artefacts, conversation, books, art, wine, coffee and shortbread. We met people and people met us and thanks to Sheelagh and David at the Heritage Garden Cafe we were able to share our thinking about Re Soundings to over forty visitors who stopped by for a chat.Read more