Island: An Exhibition by Julie Brook

Visual Artist JULIE BROOK has been working on Mingulay, where she has focussed her attention on the cliffs and stacks on the west coast, especially Biulacraig, one of the highest cliffs in Britain, and on the east coast, which forms a wide bowl shape giving onto a large sandy beach. Her exhibition will be seen in Barra, North Uist and Skye before travelling toLondon.

Artist’s Statement

When I’m asked about the language of my work, I see it as both a response to my environment, and the expression of the environment’s effect on me. It’s a process, a rhythm which I initiate, but as it gets more involved, it too begins to dictate terms.

And I must find a formal language that can express this.

Solitude is the heart of the matter. It gives me a sense of inhabiting the landscape.

Fire stack, Jura

The Mingulay Project

I have been working on Mingulay each year since 1996, through Summer and Autumn. The project continues. Mingulay is a remote and uninhabited island lying 12 miles south of Barra,Outer Hebrides.

Part of the work has focussed on drawing and painting from observing Biulacraig, an 800 ft vertical cliff of Lewissian Gneiss. I am drawn to its powerful physical presence, and desire to convey this through an assimilated knowledge of its form. I have been making a series of studies of it each time I live on Mingulay and am currently working on large-scale canvases in the studio in Skye.

In contrast to these drawings and paintings I have also made sculptural works in the landscape responding to the materials and forms around me. This is complemented by drawings made using organic materials arising out of circumstance, for example using seafoam from a storm, or materials found.

Inside Out, Mingulay

Filming with both a digital and Super 8 cinecamera has also played a crucial role in recording my experiences there. In the silent film The Land’s Edge Also I wanted to convey the sense of solitude I experience in relation to the landscape and how the work evolves through time as I become more of an inhabitant of the island.

I am planning to exhibit the work in Barra this year to thank the islanders for their support whilst I have been working on Mingulay.

Stone bowl, Mingulay

Julie Brook has been living and working in the Outer Hebrides for the last 15 years.

Island: An Exhibition by Julie Brook can be seen at:

• Vatersay Hall, Barra, May 21- June 1 2004
• Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist, June 4 – June 18 2004
• Upper Ostaig , Teangue, Isle of Skye, June 25 – July 4

• Adam Street , 9 Adam Street, London , July 8 – July 31

© Julie Brook, 2004