Ràmh Artist Support

Our first Ràmh Island Artist Support recipient is Mhairi Killin. Mhairi has been supported to undertake a residency at Grinneabhat on the Isle of Lewis, building on her previous project, On Sonorous Seas. 

“I am a visual artist from Iona working with the precious relationships between land, sea, humans, and other living beings. For this project, I will travel to Bragar with the whale skull that was part of 2022 On Sonorous Seas exhibition and install it at Grinneabhat for the duration of the residency. This whale came ashore at Bragar at the same time as a whale washed up on Iona; 2 of 118 carcasses washed ashore during a few weeks in autumn 2018 - an event which slowly revealed itself as an entangled story of the cryptic environments of the whales and the military. It seems fitting to bring the Bragar whale ‘home’, not least because of the village’s long association with whales but also as a powerful, totemic object. 

Its presence may hold a space at Grinneabhat, reflecting the ethos of the centre by welcoming people in to share conversations around the whale, about the whale, of the whale whilst allowing me to extend the On Sonorous Seas project outwards into the community.” - Mhairi Killin

Our second artist receiving support through Ràmh Island Artist Support, is photographer and writer Scott O’Neill from the Isle of Bute. Scott will begin his project on June 21, coinciding with the midsummer sunrise.  

“I am a photographer and writer from Port Bannatyne who likes nothing more than to wander the hills and shores of Bute, trying to capture the endlessly shifting moods of the island on camera. Over the next year, I will be putting together a film inspired by Bute’s wild landscapes and its long history as revealed by its abandoned cottages, chapel ruins, standing stones and ancient burial sites in all their rain-lashed, sun-soaked and frostbitten glory. I’ll be experimenting with an array of video and film formats combined with original music, field recordings and abstract sounds to highlight the island’s diverse terrain and hidden treasures.”  - Scott O’Neill 

Meet our final artist, who is receiving support through Ràmh Island Artist Support, performance artist Kate Clayton from the Isle of Bute. Kate’s project ‘Broken Blue’ relates to a £2 find from a Rothesay charity shop - a rucksack full of broken blue and white crockery, which appears to have been collected by a local over a lifetime of walking back and forth along the shore. Kate will use the china fragments to inspire a multi-media installation and performance

“I'm Kate Clayton, a performance artist based on Bute. I gained an MFA in Art, Society and Publics, from DJCAD (2014). Since then, I have been developing my practice, from the perspective of an older woman, about the fragility of our shared environment. All my work comes under the umbrella of 'Not Dead Yet'. Activism is as important as aesthetics. My solo work often involves the adoption of artistic personas. For 'Broken Blue', an exhibition that will be part of Bute Open Studios in July, I will be performing as Sybylla, an Ancient Greek prophetess, whose message is "Put nothing bad into the sea, get nothing but good out of it... Think not of exploitation but of sustainability." Another of my personas is more direct, her placard, brandished whenever required on the pier at Kilchattan Bay, reads: 'SILVER SWIMMER SAYS NO FISH FARMS'.  - Kate Clayton