Song Lines

For one week only!

"Song Lines" is an exhibition of artwork created by Val O'Regan and inspired by the SOC sound archive. Please note: this small exhibition is displayed in the corridor only, as the gallery is closed for re-painting.

In 2020 the SOC collaborated with the National Library of Scotland to digitise the Club’s sound archive as part of a large Lottery-funded project, Unlocking Our Sound Heritage. An important aspect of the project was the appointment of artist in residence Val O’Regan. Val was based at Benmore Botanic Garden where she organised workshops for children and adults to create artworks inspired by the recordings of birds in the archive, as well as developing her own work in response. A selection of the artworks created by Val during the residency are displayed at Waterston House. Documenting the experience of listening to the sounds through drawing, photography and found objects, Val used collage and the cyanotype technique to bring all these strands together. Images were cut, layered, fragmented to better represent these disparate inputs. Val’s work captures wonderfully these multiple sources of inspiration: the sounds, the birds, her environment at the time, and manages the seemingly impossible task of rendering this experience visually. 

Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC) Waterston House

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