Eden Court Theatre Gallery, Inverness, run over

THE Here We Are project, established by residents of the Argyll village of Cairndow in order to develop and sustain their local community, describes its showcase exhibition Our Houses: Their Stories as a ‘biography’.

From its beginnings as a gallery of photographs, the exhibition has evolved into a fascinating multimedia evocation of the life of a Scottish village.

It is clear from the outset that this is an exhibition both of, and for, the community. The project’s interactive touchscreen database, which allows visitors to browse through details of each of the village’s 107 houses, is an exhibition in itself, and testimony to the contributions members of the community have made.

Our Houses, Their Stories

For East Lodge, to give just one example, there are detailed images of the house’s present day interior and exterior, architectural plans, and photographs of the house’s former inhabitants.

As well as images, data on those who have called these houses home is also present, Cairndow local Alice Beattie having gathered details of village residents dating back to the first census of 1871, including their names, ages, relationship to each other, and occupations.

The project also set about collecting the area’s oral history, and a DVD display featuring contributions from Cairndow locals gives some sense of this, although this was unfortunately difficult to hear.

The rest of the space is given over to more traditional exhibition fare – mounted text and images which explain the project’s origins and development. Plans and photographs are supplemented by anecdotal evidence from the men responsible for renovations to many of the local houses, Nigel Callander and John MacDonald, and from those who lived, and live in them – recorded with assistance from the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University.

The addition of recipes and poetry, and personal photographs such as that of the 1939 wedding dress worn by a Coul Cottage bride, give a real sense of the personal history of the village. The cottage, once home to generations of Lukes, Conways and Brodies, forms one of the central studies of this element of the exhibition. It is now owned by a couple who are new to the village, and the busy A83 Inverness-Glasgow road rumbles past its front door.

View from Laglingarton, Cairndow

Despite never having heard of Cairndow before, I found the exhibition fascinating. It is not difficult to appreciate that Cairndow’s story is mirrored by those of many rural communities, and that were this same project carried out elsewhere, which of course it should be, similar stories would be told.

This is an exhibition of which its creators should be extremely proud. As well as giving due respect to the past which has shaped the community, the exhibition is modern too in its outlook. It acknowledges that the notion of a community is a fluid one, that, as Here We Are states – “people come and people go, but community remains.”

© Joanne Stephen, 2011

Links

• Our Houses, Their Stories