Tighnabruaich Led By Karen McPhail
Explore And Discover Local Makers
Fragments encouraged tourists to interact and explore Argyll’s landscape in different ways, by allowing them to find highly decorated earthenware fragments, made by Karen McPhail, hidden in the landscape, waiting to be discovered.
Fragment resulted in hundreds of these fragments placed in earthenware ‘lady pots’ to be located at sites of public interest around Tighnabruaich. Those who discovered the work were invited to take away their own fragment. This allowed people to engage with local makers' works in new ways, allowing them to see work out with studio visits and shop fronts, capturing a new audience.
This project generated conversation between locals and visitors created when they discovered the fragments:
-Two sisters from Poland excitedly start to photograph each other holding the fragments and, after hearing about the project, emotionally shared that it was one of their birthdays and will treasure their fragments as a memento.
-The local ‘Branching Out’ group (a network for mental health support) found a jar during a walk through the woodland and one member took pleasure in asking other members to choose their own fragments and discuss where they would leave them.
-An archaeologist visiting the area on holiday tweeted after seeing a jar in the Tighnabruaich Gallery window, “this is the archaeology of the future”.
