Sea Passages – Stornoway’s Sail Loft Art Project

In the first of a series of pieces, PETER URPETH follows the work of IAN STEPHEN and his collaboraters in a project aimed at capturing the soul of a building and its past …

IT  HAD BEEN one of the eye-sore areas of Stornoway. A gathering of derelicts perched precariously on a harbour-front bench with a battered façade that day and night howled a tale of neglect.

Shame really, as the derelicts in question are the town’s harbour buildings, especially the old sail loft,  that form part of the most architecturally important regions of the town. Stornoway is not crammed full of such corners, and the keeping up of old buildings has historically not been high on the agenda of  the local Great and Good when  it comes to either funds or imagination – the near-hazardous decay of Lews Castle testifies to that fact.

But the fallen-down, run-down old harbour, the face that greets the traveller, the stranger, the tourist, the home-comer, has long been a disgrace, akin to seeing a once great sea captain stumbling drunk along the quayside, his stripes in tatters in peaked cap half-cock and grubby, waving as his old ship docks.

Hence the cheer that went up when news that something was at last to be done with the relic – just in time the good hand of a Samaritan arrived to stop the old boy from falling in.

“The sail loft’s place in the history of the town, or at least its real history, the history of daily lives and local people, cannot be underestimated”

The sail loft is to be new housing, making a much needed contribution to the shortage of affordable accommodation in the town, another much needed candle of regeneration.

But others of course had different ideas: maybe the space could be utilized as a maritime museum; maybe it could the site of the new An Lanntair? But no, housing had its day and the scaffoldings are up.

The sail loft’s place in the history of the town, or at least its real history, the history of daily lives and local people, cannot be underestimated and hence it is right and proper that before the new face erodes all memories of the old, work is done to capture and preserve what remains – material fact, spoken words, memories.

Maybe the herring bone bridge that united Stornoway with the Baltic countries and the day when sail drying was a vital part of the shipping process have long gone, but memories remain, and sentiments, too, in abundance.

To work on this aspect of the preservation, Highland Buildings Preservation Trust in conjunction with Historic Scotland and with lottery funds, conceived a community art project and took the shrewd move of awarding the commission for the work to Stornoway-based (and born and breed) poet and artist, Ian Stephen.

“Artist Moira Maclean began her search for old wallpaper more than a decade ago now, and utilizes the fragments she collects from old buildings in her work.”

Ian, Portrona’s own mariner poet, knew the building and its significance of old, and conceived a project, multi-faceted in its structure and range, that would draw directly on people’s experiences of the place – its old lives, its sailing days, its time as the seaman’s mission, its fame in both home and Baltic waters. But first there was the tricky problem that time was short and with builders anxious for a start the interior had to be salvaged before the landfill’s history-hungry guts got their meal.

The sail loft project (working title ‘Tell Tales’) is as much about collaboration and working methodologies as it is Ian’s own sensibilities, and to work on aspects of the project concerned with the building itself, Ian commissioned Lochs-based artist Moira Maclean to produce work based on the buildings soft lining – its wallpaper and other remnants of its working life.

If anyone has been startled by the site of a pair of legs dangling dangerously out of the window of an old cottage on the island, fear not. They belong to the self-confessed ‘outlaw’ or ‘wall paper pirate’ of the Hebrides.

Artist Moira Maclean began her search for old wallpaper more than a decade ago now, and utilizes the fragments she collects from old buildings in her work. Gathering her materials often involves finding direct routes into the interiors of derelict houses, but wallpapers, paint and flooring are the very stuff of our real lives:

“To me its all linked to early childhood memories,” says Moira, “it’s linked to precious things and a way of life that is disappearing. Houses aren’t painted or decorated like that anymore – everyone’s into brown now, and I hate brown, it’s dull. For me the wallpapers are slightly melancholy but also a celebration. Houses are precious receptacles of lifestyles and community. I also always had a thing about maps and edges, islands. People are islands, self contained.”

“The Sail Loft, the old sea dog. There should be one in every port and all is now in the melting pot.”

When it came to gathering the wallpaper from the Sail Loft, Moira and Ian’s entry to the building may have been through a more conventional route, but the discoveries they made inside were far from conventional. Layer upon layer of bright coloured, often fancy coverings coated the walls. Each layer applied with purpose, maybe a different purpose each time signifying the many uses this space has had in its lifetime. And each layer had to be taken down, peeled back, preserved on site as best as could be achieved before being taken to Moira’s studio.

While Moira often manages to get only small fragments from old interiors, the generous Sail Loft gave up room sized remnants of his history, and whilst shedding its skin also showed off its tattoes, finding as much grace and garishness in a harbour building as would have brought a smile to Jean Genet’s face. 

There among the layers on the walls Ian and Moira found pencil drawings of boats and sailors, bawdy verse, old advert posters and pin-up photos of the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Diana Dors in basque and fishnets, replete with black pencil moustache. The Sail Loft, the old sea dog. There should be one in every port and all is now in the melting pot.

Along with Moira’s work on the interior, Ian is busy gathering reminiscences, old stories and snippets from those who new and worked in the place, stories that bind land and sea together, stories that bind Stornoway to the world via the old sea passages. These will be utilized on a CD but the rhythms of the voices will also form the basis of a newly commissioned piece of music for a performance in the harbour and Moira’s work will be the basis of an exhibition at An Lanntair.

Tying it all together is a new take on a poignant story from the Morrison Collection. The Morrison in question was a Stornoway fish curer from early in the 20th century. But Morrison’s tales were not published until the 1960s, and the book included the sorry tale of a Swedish captain who met his death in the waters around Cape Wrath.

In retelling the story Ian has brought in Swedish artist Carina Fihn who has reworked the tale from the viewpoint of the sailor’s mother and this connection will be the bridge across all the strands of this project.

To this Ian has added Finish artist Mikko Paakkola, and this project seems to be blessed with good fortune from the start for Ian has been gifted a considerable quantity of old sail cloth, some of which Mikka will utilize in his work during a residency in Stornoway.

Watch this space for updates on how the Sail Loft project is progressing. 

© Peter Urpeth, 2004