GILL RUSSELL sets the scene for Sòrn, her new outdoor night time Light and Sound Installation in Strathmashie Forest

THE artwork comprises a subtle circle of light surrounded by stones in a clearing deep in  Strathmashie Forest, just outside Laggan in Badenoch, with surround audio from speakers in the trees. I created the soundscape  using extracts from recordings made with the young people from  Fèisean a’ Mhonaidh Ruaidhand and percussionist and sound designer Dave Martin.

Gill Russell with her exhibition Uamh (photo Murdo McLeod)

The work makes reference to the winter solstice – the circle of light and the returning sun. The cairn of stones is a meeting place, a memorial, a marker, reminiscent of structures built by our early ancestors who were keenly aware of the position of the sun, but were also acutely conscious of a transparency between this world and an ‘otherworld’. The name Sòrn means ‘hearth’ or ‘chimney’(amongst other things)  in Gaelic, and in this context describes  some sort of transformative or liminal meeting place.

Sòrn is designed to be seen in darkness (although the audio will play during the day ) as the glowing light is very subtle and only visible in total darkness. It  is reached by a five minute walk along a good forestry track from the Wolftrax centre near Laggan. Visitors will need to bring a torch as the path is well signed, but unlit.

Marking the rebirth of the returning light on the shortest day, 22 December, the winter solstice, and to launch the artwork, a lantern parade will be held through the  forest to the Sòrn installation site, followed by singing performed live at the site. The parade  and opening starts at 5pm, with refreshments provided afterwards in the Wolftrax car park. The event is free and anyone of any age is welcome to bring their own lantern to join the parade.

Sòrn - photo simulation of work in progress

As an installation artist working with light and sound, I have worked on a wide range of unusual and innovative collaborative projects with other artists, writers, musicians, poets,  and astronomers. I am intrigued by the relationship between the human and the cosmic, and how contemplation of the human/cosmic juxtaposition alters perception of time itself and kindles reflections on a ‘world beyond’ and desire to connect and explore that in some meaningful way, whether by scientific enquiry or through religious encounter. My work brings together sculptural elements, light, audio and video, and places these in outdoor settings, or in low light environments.

I have a strong affinity with the special qualities of the Highland landscape, which lends itself – both in symbolic and mythological terms – to this kind of exploration, and many works have been set in outdoors locations, including Solas in Glenuig, which featured glowing globes set on a rocky and remote headland, and Long Wave, an audio installation soundscape with poetry by Rody Gorman and Brian Hill, in Skye in the summer of 2010.

Detail from Solas in Glenuig

I was Artist in Residence at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye in 2009-10. The residency culminated in Uamh,an exhibition at the  Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh in January 2011, inspired by ‘Uamh an Ard Achadh’ or  ‘High Pasture Cave in Skye, where notions of history and humanity were explored through the use of light and audio.

Uamh an Ard Acahd is an underground cave used since Mesolithic times, and  latterly  as a religious and votive site, possibly to the Celtic Earth Goddess Brigid. My exhibition featured low level light pieces in total darkness with surround  audio. The soundscape I created was  made from recordings inside the stream passage in the cave, and featured the musicologist John Purser playing ancient instruments – bone flutes, bronze horns and harmonic singing.

Colin Herd,  in a review about ‘Uamh’ in Aesthetica magazine, wrote: ‘’One of the most interesting aspects of Russell’s installation is the way her interventions in sound and light alter the viewer’s perception of time. The piece has a timelessness that stretches back (by evoking the ancient rites performed in the cave) and outwards (by simultaneously suggesting the otherworldly and cosmic).”

Sòrn, set deep within the forest, rather than in a gallery setting,  follows on from Uamh – a piece of work exploring connections between worlds, time, land and sky. The forest – a place of shelter and reflection – is central to the work.

Solas light installation

Sòrn is part of  Where Long Shadows Fall, an Arts  project funded by the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Cairngorms Local Action Group and Scottish Natural Heritage in conjunction with Laggan Forest Trust. It is managed by Fiona McLean, Community Heritage Officer for the Cairngorms National Park Authority. The  project celebrates 2011’s UNESCO Year of the Forest, and sets out to combine a number of artworks and installations in the natural forest environment with events in outdoor locations in the Cairngorms National Park which enhance awareness of  the heritage of the forest environment and the people who live there.

In September, as the first  part of the Long Shadows project, in collaboration with the Glenbuchat community, I created an audio installation in Glenbuchat woods inspired by oral history recordings collected from the community by local resident Isobel Gilchrist. Extracts of voices were mixed with ambient and natural sounds.

Sòrn opens on the evening of 17^th December 2011, and will run through the winter months.

© Gill Russell, 2011

Links

• Gill Russell CosmicSky website
• Where Long Shadows Fall
• Laggan Forest Trust
• Cairngorm National Park Authority
• Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
• Northings Review of Uamh