Open May to September, Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00 & Sun 13.00-16.00 (July & August only) / October to April (closed Jan and Feb) Tues-Sat 10.00-16.00, and for performances.

FIDDLER Aidan O’Rourke and pianist Dave Milligan have crossed paths many times before, not least in the folk big band the Unusual Suspects, and in the summer of 2008, although not working simultaneously, they both found themselves on Mull. There, at the invitation of Gordon Maclean, the visionary director of Tobermory’s An Tobar arts centre, they were to create startling new music in often quite startling circumstances.

Aidan O'Rourke (photo - Craig McKay)

The results, respectively O’Rourke’s An Tobar suite and Shops by the Dave Milligan Trio, have been available on CD for some time. Now they’re about to begin a tour for the Scottish Arts Council’s Tune Up series in a double bill that will see the separate projects reprised, and the eight musicians involved converge in a new piece that O’Rourke and Milligan are co-writing – even as you read this – through the means of modern communications technology.

I caught up with them as O’Rourke toured England with acclaimed folk adventurers Lau and Milligan criss-crossed Sweden with international fiddle team The String Sisters, and began by asking O’Rourke, an islander himself from Easdale Island near Oban, about his feelings towards Mull and the An Tobar project.

AIDAN O’ROURKE: Mull itself is an inspiring place just to travel to, but once you get there, it’s so welcoming. And An Tobar is the same, very welcoming, great location up there on the hill, good coffee. I’m sure that’s part of the arts centre’s success. But what’s really special is Gordon, the energy he puts into the place and the ideas he has. He’s one of these catalysts that makes a lot of things happen right across the board – folk, jazz, classical – and a lot of what he champions is quite left-field, which lends itself to new music.

ROB ADAMS: Did the commission have an actual brief or were you left to your own devices?

AIDAN O’ROURKE: I was asked to compose an hour’s worth of music and the original idea was to write about the wells that are dotted round the island. An Tobar itself means the well in Gaelic, and Martyn Bennett had his studio in the arts centre which he called The Well. Unlike Dave, who had quite a challenging experience [see below], I could have gone off and written this music anywhere, but I chose to hang around An Tobar for a week.

It was actually too hot to work – I found that every time I was in Mull, they were having this Mediterranean weather, with the sun splitting the rocks. So I’d go off and see various locations during the day and write music into the night when it was cooler. In the end, while some of what I wrote was inspired by these places, I found An Tobar itself, its ethos and the people who passed through it were the real inspiration.

RON ADAMS: How did you go about writing the music; did you have a set group of musicians in mind from the start?

AIDAN O’ROURKE: Well, composing for me isn’t a magical thing where inspiration comes and I jot it down. In fact, until I started work on the new piece Dave and I are writing for the Tune Up tour, I hadn’t written anything in about a year because I’ve been out touring so much with Lau and other projects. With me, composing music is graft. I have to make time for it and then sit down and the ideas will flow. Little things occasionally come to me when I’m travelling and I’ll put them on my dictaphone but it’s mainly about sitting and putting pen to paper or jamming on the fiddle and recording what I play.

I didn’t have a set personnel or even a set number of musicians in mind when I began writing, but I did have a pool of musicians that I wanted to work with at some point and Catriona McKay was one of them. She’s such an open-minded musician, as well as being a real virtuoso on the harp. So once the melodies started to come – and my stuff is generally very much melodically driven, one riff at a time – the musicians started to come to mind, too. And once I compiled what I had written I began to firm up the line-up.

Catriona McKay (photo - Louis de Carlo)

I already had Catriona on the list. Phil Bancroft seemed an obvious choice to play the melodies I had on saxophone, and getting Martin [Green] to play accordion, more from an electronics and effects point of view than the way he plays in Lau, appealed to me. I hadn’t thought about a collaboration with Dave’s trio but I steered clear of bass and drums and brought in Martin O’Neill on bodhran and percussion which has proved quite prescient given the circumstances of the tour.

ROB ADAMS: You actually worked in the room that housed Martyn Bennett’s studio in An Tobar; as an old friend of his, how did this affect you?

AIDAN O’ROURKE: It was really inspiring. But then, Martyn was a really inspiring guy as well as musician. He was a year or two older than me and he helped me through some awkward teenage years mainly because I was quite shy in those days and he wasn’t. He was so enthusiastic and so unguarded about what he played and what he knew. He never held back, he’d just be straight in there, saying “D’you know this tune; d’you know that tune?”, and if you didn’t know them, he’d show you them – and he could play them all on fiddle, pipes, whistle, all brilliantly.

So, I knew this room was where Martyn had put together his Grit album, which I thought was an amazing piece of work, and although the music I was working on was nothing like Grit, a few of the melodies I wrote were inspired by Martyn. More than that, though, just the philosophy that Martyn had, the idea that there are no boundaries in music, really helped me. Working in that room made me feel free to go anywhere musically.

I knew from speaking to Gordon as a commissioner that I could make the music as extreme as I wanted, although equally, if I’d come up with something straight down the line folky, he’d have been just as supportive. The more composing I do, though, the more I realise that this isn’t about me. It’s about who’s commissioned the music, who’s playing it, who’s listening to it. Having no limits sounds great: total freedom, but actually that’s quite scary, too, in a way.

ROB ADAMS: Can you tell us about the piece that you and Dave are co-writing?

AIDAN O’ROURKE: Ah, co-writing from afar, you mean. It’s interesting, and like everything you do as a composer, whether it’s finding out the capabilities of the harp – which I had to do to write for Catriona – or whatever, it’s all part of the learning curve. We’re both working on the Sibelius computer programme, which means that we can email ideas back and forth. It’s like Sibelius ping pong. I come up with a melody and send it to Dave to develop it or add his own take on it.

Basically, this is going to be the finale on the tour and it’ll involve all eight musicians. I’m sure it’ll develop as we play it because the common thread between the two bands is the improvising element. Dave has a foot in the folk camp and there are jazz elements in my band. Getting everyone together to rehearse is going to be a bit of a nightmare but that’s good because it means everyone’s busy. It just makes you think, though: how did people manage to put bands together in the days before mobiles and emails?

OVER to Dave Milligan, then, and I began by asking him how his connection with An Tobar come about?

DAVE MILLIGAN: I’ve spent a lot of time in Mull, and in particular in Tobermory. I think I did my first gig at An Tobar around ten years ago, and just fell in love with the place. Gordon Maclean has always been a great supporter of the projects that myself and Corrina [Dave’s life and musical partner, harpist Corrina Hewat] have been involved in, and we’ve always loved working there.

Tom Bancroft, Dave Milligan and Tom Lyne (photo - Lieve Boussauw)

ROB ADAMS: In his liner note on the album Shops, Gordon admits to sensing doubt when he spoke to the trio about the idea; what were your initial impressions about writing music about the shops in Tobermory?

DAVE MILLIGAN: To be honest, I thought at first that it sounded a bit daft. But I’ve known Gordon a long time and I trust his judgement – so I had to hear him out at least! But knowing his fondness for an unusual project, and then realising its context – this was the last of a few pieces he had commissioned various musicians to write to celebrate different aspects of life on Mull – it suddenly seemed like something we had to do.

We’ve kind of made a joke about the fact that the performing-in-the-shops part of the project was what sold it to us, but it’s true. When Gordon first talked to us about it, he was pretty low-key and matter-of-fact about the whole thing. We initially thought that we were getting involved in a bit of light-hearted quirkiness, but after we got there, we soon realised it wasn’t so much about the shops, but more about the identity and survival of a community’s way of life, and that was a pretty powerful thing to be involved in.”

ROB ADAMS: Having a deadline no doubt always helps when you’re composing but in this case, you had a week to compose, rehearse and record a whole album’s worth of music with a concert at the end of that week. What are your thoughts on this?

DAVE MILLIGAN: The timescale was a factor, but it always is. If we’d been given two weeks, we would have taken two weeks. But we only had one, and we had to write the music and record it before the concert at the end of the week, as well as working with some local musicians and youngsters who took part in the performance.

The music was all written within a couple of days – when we arrived, the first thing we did was go round the shops and meet the owners and folk who worked there. [Drummer] Tom Bancroft did some recordings of interviews and sampled some sounds, and then we just got started on the writing.

ROB ADAMS: All three of you [Dave Milligan (piano), Tom Lyne (Bass), Tom Bancroft (drums] wrote pieces; was that always the plan, and as the bandleader what are your feelings on spreading the work in this way?

DAVE MILLIGAN: The plan was always that it would be a joint writing project, but I don’t think any of us really knew how that would work. When it came to it, we all just started writing individually without really talking about it – I think somewhere in my head I imagined we would eventually get together and try and contribute something to each other’s pieces, but it just didn’t really happen that way. It’s hard to know where inspiration really comes from, but for some reason we each were naturally drawn to different shops, so it worked out perfectly.

ROB ADAMS: Did you delegate in any way or is the album’s running order – three tunes by you followed by three each by the Toms – a happy accident? The album does seem to flow and work naturally towards a very logical, satisfying conclusion.

DAVE MILLIGAN: A bit of both really. Tom Lyne’s ‘Closing’ was what we finished the first concert with and it was a very powerful conclusion to the project, so it felt very natural to finish the album with it too. The order that the different shops appear in on the CD is geographical; if you start at the south end of Tobermory Main St. and walk north, you’ll come to each shop in the same order. It was just a coincidence that the first two were mine, the second two were Tom B’s and the last one Tom L’s.

ROB ADAMS: What are your feelings looking back on the project now? Is it still quite fresh two years or so on?

DAVE MILLIGAN: It’s strange to think that we basically recorded the music within a day or two, and in some cases within hours of having written it. That’s very unusual for any musician and I don’t imagine anyone would choose to record a normal album in that way, but that was the way the project was supposed to work.

I think our most powerful memory of the week was the concert, because that’s when the music really made sense in the context of it being a community-based experience. When we recorded the music we basically did a couple of takes of each piece, and then just kind of stopped thinking about the CD – there wasn’t really time with all the workshops and songs we were working on with the local kids and musicians.

So after the week was over, the next time we heard the music was a good few months later when it came time to mix the tracks. It was interesting to hear our own music as it was at the point of conception because even at that point the material had already developed from a live point of view. And even now, in some ways, it’s moved on a bit more, so when I hear the album, those particular versions of the tunes transport me right back to that week and to Browns hardware store, or wherever… But the thing I love about performing this material still is to try and keep it fresh without losing that connection to the people and places that inspired it.

ROB ADAMS: You’re writing a piece with Aidan for the tour. Aidan describes the process as Sibelius ping pong. Are you enjoying this?

DAVE MILLIGAN: Yeah, it’s a pretty interesting way to write music, but Corrina and I have written a fair bit of music together, and that’s generally the way we work too. I can’t really imagine sitting down with another musician in the same room with a blank piece of manuscript and starting from scratch: “OK, let’s start with an F-sharp… you pick the next note.”

It’s never going to work, is it? I think when you get inspired to roll with an idea then you have to give yourself the space to complete it somehow. Even if you only end up with a short melody, it’s still a pure creative statement that you can pass on to someone else and they can respond to it. Maybe they’ll change the harmony, or embellish the melody in some way. The interesting part is that they’ll certainly come up with something that you won’t.

ROB ADAMS: Are you writing with the instrumentation and personalities involved in mind, or do you prefer to shape the music the way you hear it in your head then find a way of playing it?

DAVE MILLIGAN: I guess I start with the latter, then try and modify it to suit the instruments. But I suppose that’s where the joint writing comes in – Aidan will have different ideas about textures and arrangement. It’s a good line-up so I’m looking forward to the sound we’ll all make together!

© Rob Adams, 2010

Links

• An Tobar
• Tune Up An Tobar Page (Tour Dates)
• Aidan O’Rourke
• Dave Milligan
• Rob Adams

Alasdair McCrone, the artistic director of Mull Theatre, has a serious bit of history with this play. As Mark Fisher points out in his review, this is the sixth time that Alastair has twirled his tie and looked coy in the role of Stan Laurel (the first was way back in 1988), although he does confess that his modestly expanding waistline had him wondering if a switch of character might be in order.

Barrie Hunter takes the roll of Ollie in a play that is currently touring widely in Mull Theatre’s characteristic manner, and McGrath’s multi-faceted portrait of the great comedy pairing is well worth catching if it comes your way (and indeed, going a bit out of your way for).

Also on the road this month (and into May) is the An Tobar Commissions, a must-see double bill that brings together two of Gordon Maclean’s imaginative projects at the Tobermory arts centre, Aidan O’Rourke’s An Tobar and the Dave Milligan Trio’s Shops. As Rob Adams’s interview with the two bandleaders explains, they will also be concocting a new piece for all eight musicians especially for the tour.

Fiddlers Bid and Bellevue Rendezvous are also out and about in the Highlands & Islands, and Inverness plays host to a tasty range of treats, taking in the Treacherous Orchestra, the Scottish Ensemble, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Wee Stories and Scottish Dance Theatre, among others.

Plenty to enjoy there, even if the impending cuts in Highland Council funding continue to cast a shadow, Rumours and counter-rumours currently abound, but there is a growing feeling that the long term cultural well-being of the region is going to be sacrificed to short-term expediency, even where the resulting savings are fairly small, a situation which has the potential to do great and lasting damage.

The announcement of cuts at both a local and national level has led to the launch of several on-line petitions to allow people to make their feelings known, including one protesting the proposed cuts to music education in the region, another seeking support for the Cultural Coordinator (remember them?) in Schools programme, and another opposing the scrapping of the Applied Music course at Strathclyde University.

There has been a fair bit of recent activity on the Creative Scotland front. The appointment of Andrew Dixon as their new Chief Executive and speculation over plans to move to new premises are now followed by a Scottish Government commitment to fast-forward the launch of the new organisation – which will take on the functions currently filled by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen – to this summer.

It remains to be seen how the new arrangements shape up, but at least it will bring an end to what now seems a rather long Transition period, and allow everyone involved to get on with the crucial business of supporting the arts in what will be a very difficult period ahead.

I ended last month with a word of congratulation for An Lanntair to mark their 25th anniversary. This month, local artist and writer Ian Stephen reflects on both the very real achievements and some things that are still to be achieved at the Stornoway venue.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Colin MacIntyre (Photo - Paul Kirsop)

IS THERE another arts centre in Scotland which could muster a night of such quality and range of contemporary music as The An Tobar Sessions? I doubt it, but it’s no accident that An Tobar in Tobermory, the only arts centre in Argyll, could do so because in recent years all three bands on stage were commissioned to produce new work by its director, Gordon Maclean.

It’s not just the Wombles, Balamory, whisky and wildlife watching that have put Tobermory on the map, as the kilted presenter of the show, ‘Uncle Eric’ MacIntyre, reminded us, but the ability of An Tobar to attract and inspire artists, both visual and musical, of the highest calibre.

The innovative verve of the much-loved Martyn Bennett, who mixed much of his genre-crossing music in a garret of this former primary school, lives on in the jazz composition Shops by the Dave Milligan Trio, who were first up here; the ground-breaking An Tobar Suite of the Aidan O’Rourke Band who followed them; and the free-flowing melodies of Colin MacIntyre and his band, who finished the night.

The Dave Milligan commission centred around Tobermory’s shops, not just as subject and venue for the finished work, but as an eclectic source of found sounds which became integral to it. Duncan’s (outdoor clothes shop) featured a finely controlled drum solo by Tom Bancroft, whose driving beats at times threatened to overpower Dave’s understated piano and Tom Lyne’s coaxing and caressing double bass playing, but the balance was much better in If You Need a Painting in an Emergency that was so sweet you could almost see the paintings on the local artist’s gallery walls.

The inherent humour in the situation of a shop-inspired jazz trio performing in incongruous places like Tackle and Books and Catriona’s (Unisex Hairdressing Salon) came across in the interviews and found sounds that opened both numbers. Refrains like “What’s the strangest things you sell? Bloodworms” and “Isn’t there some awkwardness of men working in a beauty salon? Of course there is”, were accompanied by everything from bird cheeps to noisy hairdryers and in Brown’s Hardware Store we were conducted by Bancroft’s drumsticks in shouting out its name throughout the piece.

Looking like a saner version of Bill Bailey with hair, Dave Milligan pointed up the surreal classification of matter into tackle and books, and the irony of playing jazz to ladies sitting under hairdryers who were engrossed in their magazines. His seemingly effortless piano mastery with Bancroft on bodhran on Closing, which was composed by Tom Lyne, beautifully finished the set with the kind of weary rumination on the day that had gone of which Arkwright in Open All Hours would have been proud.

Aidan O’Rourke’s An Tobar Suite also featured strong jazz influences in the sax playing of Phil Bancroft and backing tracks by his Lau buddy Martin Green “on accordion and other strange noises” in the title track, and in One for Martyn and Sea, which was part-written on the Mull ferry.

In each case the traditional ear-worm tune first set out by Aidan on fiddle, Catriona McKay on harp and Martin O’Neill on bodhran and percussion was taken deep into new territory somewhere between the Balkans and Chicago, leapt around in these foreign parts, and returned all the more powerfully for having made the journey.

It’s always fascinating to watch this most energetic of fiddlers ducking and reeling as harp and fiddle, fiddle and sax played off each other intimately, while Martin Green sat Buddha-like holding on to extended chords. By turns lyrical and dark, plaintive and evocative, together they created a wonderful kaleidoscope of sounds and tempos light years ahead of your familiar medley of jigs and reels.

There’s little doubt that with An Tobar Aidan O’Rourke has pulled off the elusive feat of crossing genres and breaking new ground, and that it was the commissioning of the Suite by Gordon Maclean to mark the Centre’s 10th anniversary that gave him the opportunity to do so. All the more surprising, then, to be told that this was the first time it had been performed in over two years, and one must hope that the band’s forthcoming April-May tour with the Dave Milligan Trio will feature it in its entirety.

Tobermory’s own Colin MacIntyre, aka Mull Historical Society, and his tight young acoustic band brought yet another dimension to the An Tobar experience with his finely crafted songs and hip persona. With the rangy Gordon Maclean on double bass and his son Sorren on lead guitar and excellent harmonies, Seonaid Aitken on fiddle and Danny Grant on drums, it had all the feel of a real Mull house band who knew each other well, and how to play to their strengths.

Interspersed with some of his hits like the anthemic You’re a Star, the songs came mainly from the Island album which MacIntyre composed and recorded at An Tobar in his former school classroom with the same floorboards “regularly stained by one of my classmates”, and produced it in the head teacher’s wee room upstairs where Martyn Bennett mixed his music.

He introduced You’re a Star with a reading of his “pretty pathetic” school report card made up mostly of Cs in which he “spends too much time showing off to others” and rightly tossed it away before doing just that.

Best in my book were Cape Wrath, No Ordinary Queen (about Eliza, the girl every island has who never leaves it) and Stay Something (inspired on Calgary Beach) where he integrated intriguing features of land- and sea-scapes into his wistful love songs. Even more personal and poignant was his solo rendition of Samuel Dempster R.I.P about his Granny Tait’s loved one, whose child she carried as she waved him off to World War One and who never came back.

This encore and the final one, Ned’s Song (Brother), with all three bands on stage building the night to a rousing climax, wouldn’t have seen the light of day had it been up to some over-zealous Concert Hall jannie who put the lights up soon after the last set number, The Mull Historical Society, but true to form Gordon Maclean saved the day by coming out to tell us they had all these great musicians backstage ready to play some more for us.

Every arts centre needs someone with the vision and passion of Gordon to make things happen and it’s great that not only has all this terrific music come out of An Tobar but that it’ll be touring Scotland and elsewhere in the months to come. Definitely not to be missed.

© Norman Bissell, 2010

Links

• An Tobar
• Celtic Connections

Detail of work from Precious Cargo by Mhairi Killin

THIS LATEST solo exhibition by Iona-based artist Mhairi Killin demonstrates the artist’s absolute engagement with visual language, beautifully distilled into five sculptural installation pieces. The artist’s characteristic fine craftsmanship in a variety of disciplines, including silversmithing, weaving, drawing and sculpture is successfully taken to a new level in this latest body of work.

The multilayered nature of textile construction draws a powerful thread between the contemporary artist and the work of her ancestors. Killin’s work is at once epic and intimate, her sensitive handling of materials and intricate construction finely balanced with the conception and composition of larger scale sculptural forms.

The recipient of a Creative Development Award from the Scottish Arts Council, the artist has continued to push the boundaries of her own technique with tenacity and skill, investigating techniques of digital imaging onto silver and creating a wonderful interplay between natural and handmade marks. Exploring themes of journeying and separation, Absent Voices is a powerful and deeply moving statement of cultural decline and endurance.

In Waulk/Wake (Wooden Bobbin rack, silver threaded bobbins, woven panel of silver wire, monofilament thread, etched silver, etched glass table on wooden table frame), handling of materials such as glass eroded by the etching process, translucent woven microfilament, text suspended in lustrous silver and gossamer-like frayed edges of weave create an evocative representation of the fragility and transience of human memory.

From bobbin racks mounted on the wall above, silver threads are drawn down into a woven panel placed upon a waulking table of etched glass, a verse of waulking song visible where each weaver would have stood as part of the circle. What is so affecting about this work is its human presence, though not in any literal sense. Each silver thread catches the light, a family name suspended from it, the interplay of light and materials adding to the ethereal quality of the work.

The delicately rippling lines of the silver weave read like a ghostly echo of the rhythm that would have pounded the cloth upon the table, a reflection of the way in which the rhythm of the craft was central to people’s lives and is no more.

Coupled with this tangible sense of loss is the inherent beauty of the work, the care and reverent attention to detail that is transformative. We feel loss but we also see the continuation of traditional rituals of creation in the artist’s work. However fragile and delicate the light upon the thread may be, the artist makes it powerfully visible.

Waulk/ Weave is not rooted in nostalgia or sentimentality, but a resilient and radiant sense of hope. The artist reminds us in a whisper that our memories, personal and collective, are what truly define us. The sense of suspension in this work is extremely poignant – each thread a life, each life remembered both in the creation and viewing of the work.

Like its companion pieces in the exhibition, visual language is distilled into poetry, each work is a creative act of remembrance, personal to the artist but equally a collective expression of human identity. The words of the waulking song from Bheir mi Sgriob do Thobar Mhoire/ I will take a trip to Tobermory are well chosen within the visual work for they echo the personal and collective fields of reference of Killin’s weave.

The song is culturally specific in terms of location but universally empathic; “I would sleep with you without a pillow my head in the hollow of your shoulder”, a timeless expression of tenderness and love. Use of primary sources such as poetry, waulking song and correspondence between Iona and the New World link human experience past and present throughout the exhibition.

Prayers To Mary (Etched Silver, wire, paper, brass organdie) is a superb example of a work led by texture and form. Each individual component of the three dimensional work arranged in cruciform is a work of art in itself. The entire piece hung slightly out from the wall suspends it mid-air like a vision. A variety of textures within the work, together with the purity of white and silver, render each prayer precious and unique.

Finishing techniques used in silversmithing contribute to the subtle variations and detail of each piece while contrast, depth and layering of oxidised and etched silver, stitched wire, waxy luminous paper and rag papers draw the eye compellingly into the work.

Previously known as St Mary’s Cathedral, Iona Abbey has remained a site of pilgrimage for centuries. The artist draws our attention to that which is hidden in Prayers To Mary, alluding to the abbey’s former name and associations with the feminine, transforming prayers or hopes traditionally attached to the cross then burnt into physically tangible yet visionary form.

Killin’s choice of materials, the healing and transformative associations with silver, together with the overall structure communicate immediately and imaginatively with the viewer. The strong devotional aspect of the work is actually the prayer of creation itself. The simplicity and elegance of form overall is reminiscent of St John’s Cross from 8th century Iona, but within the cross there is an infinite variety of surfaces which the viewer may connect with, irrespective of faith or belief.

A series of three studies, The Blessing Of The Ship (Found objects, etched silver with text from The Blessing of the Ship Iona Press, 1887), is a another example of the way in which the viewer is led into the work in a meditative way. Here burnt fragments of wood create a three dimensional drawing with beautiful textures of powdery charcoal contrasted with inlaid silver.

There is something assured and elemental in Killin’s mark; the way each sculpture is composed reveals a fluid and accomplished approach to drawing as a foundation of the artist’s practice. Charred by fire each component of the triptych reads like calligraphy.

This quality is particularly powerful in Precious Cargo (Boat fragment, photo etched/etched silver). The naturally eroded elongated boat fragment peppered with salt spray contrasts grain of wood and the action of water with the glint and lustre of hand worked metal. The fluidity of the drawing is enhanced by oxidisation and etching which introduces a finely controlled tonality into the gestural mark.

This can clearly be seen in the sweep of the upper scroll form expanding the field of reference from the intimacy of the sketchbook to the studio wall and into the gallery space. The concertina-style unfolding of postcards and correspondence to loved ones together with inlaid plaques – “Precious Cargo, June 1847, 98 People” – on the upper surface of the boat form (which we do not immediately see) refract light outwards onto the gallery walls.

Killin’s approach to the etching plate achieves the effect of a daguerreotype, a finely wrought living surface defined by skilled deliberation and accidental mark. Light and shadow in relation to the main sculptural form is beautifully rendered achieving a depth of image and a unity of technique and ideas that is masterful.

Boat Of Blessings (Boat fragment with etched silver inlays, silver boat), a prow emerging from the corner of the gallery contains a powerful invocation. Upon the seat a crisp origami-style boat of etched silver rests, delicate threads drawn through the structure and dangling into space, “a vessel and repository for contemplation”.

Like the threads that extend beyond the waulking table edges in Waulk/ Wake, they enter the consciousness of the viewer, an invitation to the imagination. At the heart of all these works is a profound stillness, the relationships between them adding layers of potential interpretation freeing to the mind. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to construct their own paper boat of blessing, adding this to the larger vessel. These are to be released onto the ocean at the end of the exhibition, carrying forward individual thoughts, hopes or blessings.

Though not part of the official Year of Homecoming programme, Absent Voices is an intensely engaging exploration of personal and collective archaeology. It is a significant touchstone not only in terms of the artist’s individual creative development but in relation to how we visualise the Highlands and Islands as land, people and memory.

Killin’s work is a continuation of a rich visual culture we have yet to fully acknowledge and a potent example of innovative contemporary art practice. Absent Voices is distinctive not only for the artist’s ongoing commitment to her craft but for its soulful intelligence – this is an exhibition which invites closer scrutiny and repeated viewing.

Following its current showing at An Tobar, Absent Voices will tour in 2009/2010. A hand finished artist notebook documenting the working practices of the artist will also be published to accompany the exhibition.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• An Tobar

• Mhairi Killin

JOHN SAICH reports from a successful gathering of makers and artists on the Isle of Mull

FOLLOWING a highly successful Makers Day in Stornoway, HI~Arts Crafts Development Coordinator Pamela Conacher brought together a similarly inspirational and informative gathering in Mull on 7 May.

Tobermory’s An Tobar was the perfect location for a sizable group of motivated and talented makers and artists to learn some new things, re-affirm long held passions and share some personal experience with like-minded others.

An Tobar, Tobermory, Isle of Mull

Like Stornoway, Mull was graced with some dramatic weather on the day, always a source of twitchiness for event organisers working on islands. As the bus driver from Craignure reminded us – several times – this was the Wild West; thankfully however, not quite wild enough to deter anyone from making the various crossings from Iona, Lochaline and Oban. As we’ll discover, their determination was well rewarded.

You might ask then, why chose an off-shore location like Tobermory for a meeting of makers from all over Argyll – and, as it turned out, from Ross-shire, Inverness and Lochaber? One reason is obvious. As a centre of the Arts, An Tobar has been commissioning original work since 1999 and has hosted an astonishing number of exhibitions, including the Argyll Boxed Collection and work by Andy Goldsworthy, Dalziel+Scullion and many others.

Mhairi Killin's Studio and Gallery

To quote Ross Laird from Mhairi Killin’s presentation, “objects made by caring hands are alive”, and An Tobar understands that perfectly. But there is another crucial dimension. Referring again to Mhairi Killin, whose maker’s journey from Glasgow to Iona has defined so much of who she is and what she does, it might be said the crossing of water and travelling-to-meet brings an added enchantment to something already special.

Like Mull itself, it’s hard to define, but you feel it in the air and hear it in eager conversation over lunch and coffee.

Gatherings within any artform operate on more than one level. There is the scheduled programme of presentations by invited speakers which, on this occasion, were of the highest order. Sian MacQueen and Jean Donaldson gave us a virtual guide of Artmap Argyll and Cowal Open Studios respectively – both rapidly expanding artists groups with some synergy of purpose but very clear individual characteristics.

Both were uplifting examples of how much can be achieved in a relatively short time with commitment and a professional approach to marketing. Also, that neither is in competition with the other, a refreshing message from a sector that recognises the value of collaboration and mutual support.

Mhairi Killin followed with the aforementioned Makers Tale, a beautifully crafted presentation that provoked some challenging questions about looking to yourself and your own ambitions as an artist whilst striving to open up new business opportunities.

Work by Mhairi Killin

Mhairi’s current response to the former will be her Absent Voices exhibition, which opens at An Tobar in July, and the latter is very much evident in the success of Aosdana on her home island of Iona.

In the afternoon Nicola Henderson, Development Director of Timespan in Helmsdale, delivered a sure-handed users guide to on-line selling.

This would be a big subject to cover in one sitting under any circumstances, but as we’re all increasingly finding our customers on the web, there are some definite pitfalls to avoid and Nicola spelled out a few. If you took only a handful of points from this presentation you’d be in good shape to sell with confidence.

Finally, we heard from Alex Connell and Isle of Mull Weavers. This was an engaging story of how organic agricultural management and Gaelic folklore can take on a new, sensuous aesthetic to create something very beautiful – in this case the Ardalanish Collection by Anja Hynynen.

Practical support came from Cowal-based photographer Derek Prescott (www.derekprescott.co.uk) who photographed makers’ work for use in brochures and web sites, and from Pamela Conacher herself through one-to-one conversation and advice.

Frock Coat by Isle of Mull Weavers

All that would be plenty, but what is it in the act of getting together that we respond to so deeply? To answer that you have to put yourself in the shoes of the artist or maker, living and working in rural Scotland. How many days would you face your materials, drawing on a well of inspiration and motivation as unpredictable as that Wild West rain, thinking – am I the only person doing this?

I spoke to someone over lunch about how the technologies of mobile phones and the internet must have changed island life immeasurably in recent years. As she said, before email, you could easily be just another artist up the end of the track.

And that’s just it. All over the Highlands and the Islands, all over Scotland, there are hundreds of makers and artists up the track, all believing in what they do and doing it regardless of whether the rest of the world likes it or not. Gradually, and thanks to growing networks of communication, artists groups and Makers Days like this one at An Tobar, the world is waking up to how wonderful so much of it is.

What you take away with you from such a day is a goody-bag for the soul. Certainly, you get the benefit of meeting and picking the brains of some very inspiring and knowledgeable guest speakers. But you also go home feeling just a little bit more connected than you were yesterday and your particular end of the track, whether real or imagined, seems a better place to be.

© John Saich, 2009

Links:

• HI-Arts Craft Web pages

• An Tobar

• Cowal Open Studios

• Art Map Argyll

• Mhairi Killin

• Isle of Mull Weavers

• Online Selling by Nicola Smith

GORDON MACLEAN is now in his second decade as artistic director of the acclaimed An Tobar Arts Centre on Mull, where he has seeded numerous significant projects

KENNY MATHIESON caught up with Gordon for Northings, and began by asking how long he had been involved with the Tobermory venue?

GORDON MACLEAN: Pretty much since the start. It kicked off with a local committee who set about getting it together, which would have been about 1994, I think, and I got involved with that the following year. I became director in early 1998, shortly after we opened.

KENNY MATHIESON: And you are from Mull yourself?

GORDON MACLEAN: Yes, the family goes back a few hundred years here.

Gordon Maclean on stage

KENNY MATHIESON: You are also a musician, a bass player. Was that what you were doing before An Tobar?

GORDON MACLEAN: I’ve always been a musician, but alongside other things. I went to university in Edinburgh and played in Jock Tamson’s Bairns and in the scene around Sandy Bells and so on at the end of the 1970s. I moved back to Mull and have a very clear decade-by-decade career path from there – I worked about ten years on fishing boats, and then did ten years on the roads with the Council, and then moved into the arts. I’m sure you can see the logic in that trajectory … .

I like to see An Tobar as an artist support project, and I feel very lucky to have this job, and to be able to do it here on Mull

KENNY MATHIESON: I suspect being Artistic Director is easier on the back, if not necessarily the nerves.

GORDON MACLEAN: I’d say so. During that time I was involved in music, getting my own bands together and putting on gigs for other people and so forth.

KENNY MATHIESON: Are you still playing much? I know you’ve been working with your son, singer-songwriter Sorren Maclean, who seems to be making significant progress now.

GORDON MACLEAN: Yes, and I am still playing in his band, although he is looking at forming a new one now. That’s mostly been the playing I have done over the last while, and I don’t have a lot of time to do much more, although it was nice to do the project here with Michael Marra, and I did quite a few gigs with him elsewhere as well. That was one of our most successful projects.

Sorren Maclean

KENNY MATHIESON: Looking at An Tobar, the artistic focus seems to fall predominantly on a mix of music and visual arts.

GORDON MACLEAN: We have always aimed at being an arts centre that covered various art forms, but those two have settled down as the two main streams of what we do. We have done some bits and pieces of both traditional and contemporary dance and forays into other areas, including puppet theatre this April, but we have always had a gallery programme. It’s only recently that we had a visual arts officer – before that it was done by a committee.

KENNY MATHIESON: Have you basically left theatre to Mull Theatre?

GORDON MACLEAN: Exactly that, yes. We did the odd theatre piece in the early years, and some dance shows, but doing theatre seemed daft. Why tread on each other’s toes, and we have enough on our plate anyway, so Mull Theatre definitely cover that side of things.

KENNY MATHIESON: Your residency programmes in both visual arts and music seem to be an important element of your work?

GORDON MACLEAN: Very much so. The visual arts residences are based around the exhibitions, and it’s often down to whether we have funding to do it. Sometimes an artist will come here and work for a period, and we will support them with studio space and accommodation. While they are here they may do workshops and so forth as well as working on their own stuff, and in some cases we will bring them to work on a specific commission.

KENNY MATHIESON: You have earned a reputation for generating a succession of fascinating commissions in both music and visual arts. Is that element of involvement in actual creation of work important to you?

GORDON MACLEAN: Very much so, on both the visual arts and music sides of our activities. We like to bring musicians over to create work in the same way as visual artists whenever we can. That goes back quite a while, and in a sense right back to the start, in that we commissioned Savourna Stevenson to write a piece for the opening. She wrote that at home rather than here, but it did set the precedent of commissioning new work.

KENNY MATHIESON: And in subsequent years you have been able to work much more directly on the ground in Mull with the artists?

GORDON MACLEAN: The Dave Milligan Trio’s Shops is a good recent example of that. That was done entirely here over a week with the three musicians, and they created the music and performed the pieces in the shops along the harbour in Tobermory before the final concert.

KENNY MATHIESON: Was that your idea to have them work with the local shops?

GORDON MACLEAN: I have to admit that was my idea, yes, and I felt that they were the kind of guys who would respond to a slightly off-the-wall concept! And they did.

Aidan O’Rourke’s piece An Tobar was another one that was very focused on the island. That was commissioned for our 10th anniversary, and Aidan came over and spent a few days here, working in the studio that Martyn Bennett had used. We did a lot of travelling round the island with him just looking for inspiration, and it was performed and recorded here.

KENNY MATHIESON: And I recall the Burt-MacDonald project we covered in Northings back in 2005 was also very local?

GORDON MACLEAN: It was very focused here, and that was one that grew legs as it went on. Keith Tippett eventually got involved in that as well, and it just kept on growing. These kind of commissions can often have a very specific short span, but that one just kept going.

KENNY MATHIESON: Do you specify a local connection when you make those commissions?

GORDON MACLEAN: We have always tried to build in some local connection In the work we have commissioned, yes, and I think the artists have generally responded very well to that. It is a two-way process – they are inspired by being here, and the people here are inspired by their presence.

KENNY MATHIESON: And the locals get involved?

GORDON MACLEAN: We have often tried to set it up so that they have a lot of interaction with the local community in various ways – Shops is an obvious example, and we did a piece with Corrina Hewat a few years ago that involved a local ladies choir. We did a piece with Ian Stephen a while back about Mull fishermen, and he was the perfect guy for that – he was going out on the boats with them and yarning round the table. It’s true on the visual arts side as well – our Tales from the Museum project was a good example of that.

Shrine: A collage by Michael Marra

KENNY MATHIESON: And you also set up your own record label, Tob Records. Was that mainly to document the music commissions?

GORDON MACLEAN: That was certainly part of it. Again, that’s being going since pretty early on as well. It started as a way of providing a record of the projects, with small pressings. We did Ian Stephen’s project, but we have done quite a number of singles with local bands over the years. We did Corrina Hewat’s piece, and one with Karen Wimhurst and various members of Mr McFalls Chamber, Michael Marra, and the three jazz commissions.

KENNY MATHIESON: Aidan O’Rourke’s project came out on Navigator Records rather than Tob. Why was that?

GORDON MACLEAN: We would certainly have done it ourselves, but Aidan is signed to Navigator Records, and they were keen to do it. They have a wider distribution and so on than us, so we were happy to see that happen. We have one coming out on Colin McIntyre’s record label quite soon as well.

KENNY MATHIESON: Do you have a policy of supporting young artists on the island?

GORDON MACLEAN: We have always tried to do quite a bit of that, both in visual arts and in music. Over the years quite a lot of musicians that we have been able to support in their early stages have gone off from Mull and made a living as a musician or in the music business, and if I can give youngsters a chance to work with experienced professionals who come here, then I always try to do that.

Karen Wimhurst’s project was like that – she worked with local youngsters and Mr McFalls Chamber, and they invited us all down to play at the Bongo Club in Edinburgh as well.

KENNY MATHIESON: You are now into your second decade at the helm at An Tobar – is your enthusiasm still high, despite the inevitable frustrations?

GORDON MACLEAN: Och yes. There are always money struggles just keeping the place going, and sometimes things come at you very unexpectedly, but I’ve never found myself waking up in the morning and thinking oh hell, I’ve got to go to work today. There is always so much going on. I like to see An Tobar as an artist support project, and I feel very lucky to have this job, and to be able to do it here on Mull. If you had said to me twenty years this would be situation, I would have laughed at you.

And even if you don’t come to An Tobar to see any art or hear any music, it’s well worth a visit just for the cafe!

© Kenny Mathieson, 2009

Links

• An Tobar

Frock Coat by Isle of Mull Weavers

In the depth of winter, we planned a Makers Day with An Tobar on Mull.

May would be lovely we agreed, as we battled against snow and gales and thought of spring, sunshine and calm seas! Little did we know that the Highland weather would do us proud, and yesterday we once more faced snow, gales and disrupted ferries!

Not deterred, over 35 makers gathered in the comfortable surroundings of AnTobar and enjoyed a day of good company, delicious food, inspiring stories and enough information to keep everybody planning and thinking for many weeks to come.

Mull has been a popular destination for HI-Arts staff this year. Indeed, if you have not been to Mull enquiries are made to your holiday plans with ‘are you going to Mull then?’ On Thursday both Avril and myself were there, John Saich came along as he is writing a feature for the website and Fiona Fisher just happened to be there on holiday with her parents so, in exchange for her lunch, she helped out – and on the drive in I passed Iain in the Screen Machine!

This group approach obviously worked as participants at the makers day were left in no doubt as to what and who HI-Arts are – and putting faces to names always helps!

Our Makers Days are a great opportunity for people who live in isolation and rarely meet up to do the all important networking – or blethering! I think we will need to extend our lunch break to two hours as the noise level just keeps on rising as people find out what friends and colleagues have been up to. I always think that this is really the essence of what the days are about and love it when people get back and let me know that, without the opportunity, they would never have heard about this exhibition, that supplier and a new retail outlet!

Our Argyll day really was inspirational as our range of speakers brought home what it is to be a maker and live in this area – and why, despite the odds, we keep on doing it!

Two talks by representatives of Art Map Argyll and Cowal Open Studios started the day off on a really positive note and is was so good to see groups using their own initiative and skills to really make a difference with very little outside intervention.

Mhairi Killin’s very moving talk about how her life came full circle and brought her back to weaving silver and metal on Iona was a fitting end to the first half of the day.

A practical workshop about setting up a website from Nicola Henderson followed the very tasty lunch and many participants benefited from hearing about how to successfully sell online.

Alex from Mull Weavers really inspired us all by showing how chance meetings and journeys can lead to great things – and he had us all wanting to save up our money and buy a gorgeous coat made from organic tweed!(please see photo above)

On the ferry back both Avril and I felt that the day was a tremendous success and the combination of wonderful surroundings, positive people- and Mull- was a winner! We will be back – and more than likely for our holidays too!

Pamela
8th May 2009

Links:

• HI Arts craft pages

• An Tobar

• Art map Argyll

• Cowal Open Studios

• Cove Park

• Isle of Mull Weavers

• Mhairi Killin

• Nicola Henderson’s Notes on Online Selling

Jo Mango

THE BEAUTY of An Tobar is that if you live on Mull, or are even just there for a few days, chances are you’ll get to hear something special when you least expect it. And, what’s more, you’ll hear it close-up in an environment that city venues would find hard to beat.

There are some artists so perfectly suited to An Tobar it’s almost as if the venue was built around them, and Jo Mango is one. The story goes that one of her CDs had found its way to An Tobar some time ago and had become such a favourite in the café that a live appearance was becoming a must.

I too was handed a promo at Celtic Connections three years ago, and still play it, so here were many worlds aligning perfectly. Of course that’s not uncommon on Mull, nor is it I suspect all that unusual in the magical constellation of Mango.

I’m going to avoid comparisons to describe the Jo Mango sound, though it’s no surprise she has collaborated with Vashti Bunyan and is a contemporary of one of Glasgow’s most melodic and innovative bands, Zoey Van Goey. Her voice is stunning, her songs are deeply poetic and moving, and she clearly just lives and breathes music like no other.

But it’s the compelling aura of quirky innocence and fun that sets Jo Mango and her band apart from many, many others. It took two songs for me to get it and, truth be told, at first I wasn’t even sure I liked it. Then, by ‘The Moth And The Moon’, I loved it, it being a kind of story book world that gradually beguiles you and washes away any weary cynicism that may somehow or other have crept into the room un-noticed.

Band members are introduced as Jim Mango, Calum Mango and Alan Mango. Only Jim is really a Mango, but clearly in tonight’s context they all are, and between songs we hear about some of their adventures – like the time Jim got Jo some caterpillars for her birthday and the day the kitchen caught fire.

They take a fascinating array of magic instruments with them on their travels too: harmonium, concertina, kalimba, a toy piano and a white electronic autoharp called an omnichord. Apparently you don’t get omnichords these days, but as Jo says, “that’s probably because we don’t live in the eighties anymore, though I like to think that’s not true.”

I can just hear an earnest presenter on Tomorrow’s World declare: one day, all autoharps will be played like this.

The band Mangos don’t play all the time, often sitting patiently and quietly waiting for their turn to join in, and when they do it counts. None attempt to dazzle with virtuosity, what they do is sympathetic and the right thing for the song with an appropriate, tasteful eccentricity.

Certainly a poignant version of Tom Waits ‘Innocent When You Dream’ sums up the mood, but there is depth to this world of theirs as ‘Waltz With Me’ and ‘Black Sun’ more than hint at, both great songs superbly done. And just in case I’ve overdone the whimsical story book thing, have a look at Jo’s web site and consider some of her very considerable achievements in recent years. This is a serious artist by any definition.

Big mentions also to opener Ben TD, a young Australian singer song-writer now resident in Glasgow with a refreshing take on subtle, reflective lyrics and sure handed acoustic guitar. A combination of finely crafted songs and engaging personality is likely to win Ben many fans in coming months and we’re certain to hear more of him.

© John Saich, 2008

Links

• Jo Mango
• Ben TD
• An Tobar

AN TOBAR has made itself into an essential part of the local community and the wider Scottish arts scene in the 11 years since we opened. It’s been wonderful and completely inspiring to welcome so many fabulously talented artists and musicians to Tobermory and equally uplifting to be part of the career development of many local young people who all seem to have adopted An Tobar as their own place.

For me personally, it feels like a real gift to be able to work here. Twenty years ago I couldn’t have imagined that an arts centre would become a reality on Mull and it is quite a privilege to be part of the creation of a growing legacy of work involving some of the most outstanding artists and musicians in Scotland. So many local people have also worked hard to make An Tobar a success – the list would be too long to mention names.

Since we opened there has been an explosion in small venues across Scotland and of course the music scene is healthier than it has ever been. It would be great if Government would stop mucking the arts sector about and get on with it. Whatever the new quango is called or does, I think we’d all rather deal with imperfect reality rather than more indecision.

Gordon Maclean
Director

Gordon Maclean faces the questions:

NORTHINGS: When was the venue established?

GORDON: The venue opened in 1997 with a specially commissioned piece by Savourna Stevenson which was the first of many great new compositions we have commissioned over the past 11 years.

NORTHINGS : What famous names have taken to the stage over the years?

Gordon: An Tobar has presented concerts by Amy MacDonald, Salsa Celtica, King Creosote, Blazin Fiddles, Aly and Phil, The Dunedin Consort, Martin Taylor, Martyn Bennett, Angus & Julia Stone, Tommy Smith (solo and with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra), plus An Tobar commissions featuring Mr McFall’s Chamber, the Cauld Blast Orchestra, Corrina Hewat, The Burt MacDonald Sextet with Keith Tippett and Michael Marra.

NORTHINGS: What are your big ideas for the future of the venue?

Gordon: Having enjoyed our 10th anniversary year in 2007 (including a brilliant new work by Aidan O’Rourke which is released on Navigator Records later this year) we’re game for another 10 years. The biggest challenge is keeping afloat!

NORTHINGS: Does the venue have a ghost?

Gordon: No ghost, but lots of past pupils come in with stories and memories from when the building was a school. Just last week a respectable local lady was admiring “Warnock and wee John” which she had carved into a door many years ago.

NORTHINGS: What was your worst disaster as director?

Gordon: Introducing piper Arthur Gillies to a full house only to discover he’d gone to the gents at the last minute.

NORTHINGS: And what was your biggest triumph?

Gordon: I think I often get the biggest kick from seeing some of our local teenagers get a band together and perform songs of their own – being nominated as Venue of the Year at the Trad Music Awards was exciting too.

NORTHINGS: If you could have any artist in the world for a one-off special, who would it be, and why?

Gordon: It would still have to be Joni Mitchell.

NORTHINGS: Why should people look forward to visiting An Tobar?

Gordon: Ester’s cooking makes the café well worth a visit!

© HI-Arts, 2008

Link

• An Tobar
  

CalMac Pier sculpture - an 'after work' picture

APPROACHING Cath Keay’s exhibition at An Tobar, the first thing one notices is the smell. The sweet, mellifluous scent of honey wafts through the café and foyer area, luring the visitor towards the gallery space like a bee towards a fragrant flower.

Once inside, one is met with the sight of six rather severe-looking plinths, each topped with a yellowish sculpture illuminated from beneath. Closer inspection reveals that the sculptures are models of buildings constructed from beeswax, and that they are standing on pools of honey, which explains the smell.

Cath Keay trained at Glasgow and Edinburgh schools of art, and is now based at the University of Newcastle, where she’s completing a PhD in sculpture. She has been using beeswax as a material since 1994, and in 1995 exhibited some of these works in Laing Solo, an annual programme of solo exhibitions by emerging artists at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle.

Prior to that she worked with other organic, food-related materials such as bread and soap, which she used to create text-based sculptures during a month-long artist-in-residence project at An Tobar.

Cath Keay’s work succeeds on a number of levels

Such is the formality of the presentation that one feels this must be some kind of bold, totalitarian statement, but in fact it turns out to be simply a random sentence taken from a beekeeping manual. Thus Keay likes to overturn our assumptions, combining meaning with method in an unexpected and unpredictable way.

The rest of the pieces are all models of 1930s utilitarian buildings in the ‘International Style’ formed from beeswax. She chose buildings of this era because of her interest in idealism, the utopian view of the future that emerged between the world wars, and the buildings that resulted from it.

At the same time, there is a practical motivation for choosing this style of architecture, as she tells us that the long, flat shape of many of these buildings fits well into a ‘super’ or honey-making box. She enjoys the relationship between the original subject – 1930s architecture – and her technique, which uses bees to break down the original model, placing the work inside a bee hive for anything between one and three months to see what results.

The results are unpredictable, and demonstrate Keay’s willingness to allow the work to develop independently, intervening only as far as deciding how long to leave it inside the hive.

Bees are important to the work in both a symbolic and practical sense: as a highly efficient, structured group of individuals, all working for the collective good, they reflect many of the social ideals of the 1930s. They also help to build the work, or rather to break it down, creating a paradox that can be aligned again to the contradictions within human society of that era.

As part of the exhibition, An Tobar commissioned a sculpture of the ‘CalMac Pier’, a familiar feature of the town’s famous waterfront and the site of forceful campaigning in response to threats that it would be closed thirteen years ago.

Parallels can be drawn once again: local residents ‘swarmed’ in defence of their territory and in the end won the case. Another new piece, ‘Silk Moths’, is sited at Glengorm, a private home a few miles outside Tobermory. The work features ceramic sculptures of silk moths, with video footage of the insects’ courtship displays and an accompanying soundtrack.

The piece continues Keay’s interest in insects, but this time focusing on a creature that is redundant in nature, and only functions as a slave to human beings. In contrast to the bees, the silk moth represents the futility of some aspects of human activity – the society that has ‘developed’ to the point where it has ceased to function.

Cath Keay’s work succeeds on a number of levels: in visual terms, these are intricate and intelligent pieces that have been produced using an intriguing method. On a deeper level, the artist invites us to reflect on human society and the paradoxes and threats within it, using a somewhat sinister comparison with the insect world. All in all, plenty of food for thought.

© Juliet Knight, 2006

Link

• An Tobar

Long Night Moon by Mhairi Killin.

I RUSHED INTO the exhibition space at An Tobar in the middle of a busy afternoon with little time to spare. Less than a minute later I was absorbed in reflections on time, mortality and the cycles of nature, and all schedules were put aside.

‘Long Night Moon’ is a quiet, contemplative exhibition, and an expression of very personal thoughts and experiences. The subtitle, ‘The Rhythm of Remembrance’, gives an insight into what these experiences might be, and in fact the exhibition is a moving account of an individual’s coming to terms with grief, and the process of healing over time.

Mhairi Killin studied embroidered and woven textiles at Glasgow School of Art, and her background is clearly evident in this work. Using materials such as silver, brass and stones gathered around her home on the island of Iona, she applies traditional techniques to new materials to create a highly crafted, tactile effect.

The title work, ‘Long Night Moon’, is a large, vertical piece made up of 365 silver discs, each one marked to represent the phases of the moon over the course of a year. The shiny quality of the materials looms out of the background, capturing the effect of the moon glowing out of a night sky.

Seeing a year represented visually like this invites reflection on the paradox of time: how short a year is, and yet how each day can seem like an insurmountable obstacle when recovering from loss.

Another of the larger pieces, ‘Rhythm’, also represents the moon, this time connecting it to another cycle of nature: the menstrual cycle. Beneath a large stainless steel silver moon there is a stick marked with thirty-one heavy wire stitches.

This is a reference to the discovery of a prehistoric reindeer bone with thirty-one scratches on it. Initially interpreted by archaeologists as an early calendar, it was later suggested as more likely to be a woman’s record of her menstrual cycle. The heavy, masculine materials used in this work contrast with the feminine subject matter, and the physical process of making is clearly evident.

My favourite piece, however, was ‘An Ataireachd Ard’, a long, horizontal work featuring thirty-one smooth, black Iona stones. The stones are laid out in a line, each one circled with a thin piece of paper inscribed with a line from the well-known Gaelic song of the same title. The song is often used as a lament, and this work is about remembrance, the collecting of the stones representing the physical process of healing over time.

A series of smaller preparatory works experiment with different materials and processes, and reveal the artist’s technical training and attention to detail. One of these, ‘Homewards’, features a boat made from aluminium which represents the Viking tradition of burying people in boats with treasured possessions.

The boat was a practical means of transporting the soul to the afterlife and represented the belief – the hope – that this life was just the first stage in a longer journey.

I returned to my schedule unwillingly, but feeling enriched by the experience. At its best, that’s what art can do: take us out of our hectic daily lives for a few moments to give us pause for thought. In Mhairi Killin’s case I felt privileged to be allowed to share what felt like a private, almost cathartic body of work.

Long Night Moon can also be seen at WASPs Gallery, Edinburgh (8-17 May 2006)

© Juliet Knight, 2006

Link

• An Tobar

Saxophonist RAYMOND MACDONALD is co-leader of the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, one of the most adventurous jazz groups in Scotland. They return to An Tobar in Tobermory this month (as a quartet) to develop and perform a new commission
 

Arts Journal: Raymond, tell us a bit about the An Tobar commission in March.

Raymond MacDonald: We are going to be working on Mull for a week on a project. We were up there last year and had a great time, and Gordon McLean was very encouraging. We said than that we must do it again, and a couple of months ago Gordon raised the possibility of a week-long project in March in which they would commission some new work, we would work with some local kids, and do the concert. We would also make a CD there.

AJ: Is there a theme to the commission?

RM: They have a large clock in the middle of Tobermory, and they want us to do something around the idea of the clock, which is quite interesting, because we already have a tune I wrote called ‘Behind the Big Clock’, which was actually written about the clock at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. We’ll do a bit of advance preparation for that, but again we will leave things open, particularly for working with the school kids. It’s important to leave space for things to develop in that context as well.

AJ: As well as the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, you have been very active in organising the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, which is a very large ensemble dedicated to free improvisation, an area of music a lot of both musicians and listeners find daunting.

RM: Quite a lot of the people involved in this music feel that once you get past eight or nine players it is problematic to play completely free, but we are very committed to that, and that may be one of the main ways that we develop from here. I see an increasing interest in improvisation that is across the spectrum. I do a bit of television and film soundtrack work, and people I worked with there wanted to do some free improvisation. At the same time, I was working with Future Pilot AKA, and the same thing was happening there, so I was having the same conversations with musicians who were not involved with free improvisation or with each other, but were interested in exploring it.

AJ: Was that part of the point of forming the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra?

RM: Very much so. The GIO was a way of bringing people together to explore that, and the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow have been very encouraging right from the start. They have been instrumental in making it happen as it has.

AJ: And you have had the chance to work with people like Evan Parker, Maggie Nichols, and shortly Gunter Sommer, who are all revered names in free improvisation.

RM: We really enjoyed working with Evan and Maggie last year, but we feel it is important to do some gigs without the star names as well. The band needs to maintain and develop its own identity.

AJ: There is a parallel situation with the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, isn’t there?

RM: That’s right – we have worked recently with both Keith Tippett and Harry Beckett, and we have an ongoing relationship with Lol Coxhill. I think it has all grown out of working with Lol, and the fun we have had doing that. It has given us the confidence to approach these artists. At the start of last year George and myself drew up a list of people we would like to work with, and Keith was at the top of it. That worked out really well. We would love to take the project with Keith further as well, and we are talking about that. He is really keen to visit the Highlands and Islands, actually. In fact, we had hoped it might be possible to do something with Keith for this project on Mull, but it was just too short notice this time. We all felt it was a successful project, and it worked well with our vocalist [Raymond’s sister, Nicola].

AJ: How did the Harry Beckett link come about?

RM:  I was lucky enough to get an invitation through Evan Parker to go down to London and work with the London Improvisers Orchestra at the Red Rose Club. On the gig I found myself sitting between Lol Coxhill and Harry Beckett, which was quite an experience. I had seen Harry play with Bill Wells during the Glasgow Jazz Festival a few years back, and Lol had always said that Harry would be a good person for the band to collaborate with, because he has an interest in free music but is also a very strong melody player. When I was sitting in between them having such a great time I just said to Harry that if the opportunity arose would he like to come up and play with us, and he did.

AJ: How much of what happens in these collaborations is mapped out in advance?

RM: What we tend to do is to prepare a range of possibilities in advance, and then in the time before the concert we will rehearse and see what works and what doesn’t, and we’ll leave space for things to develop, so that we are not going in with too rigid an idea of what to do. To be a true collaboration you have to leave that space for things to happen. I think one of the challenges for me and George [guitarist and co-leader George Burt] as we move forward is to try to synthesise the free stuff with our songs. With Keith I thought beforehand that we would do more free material, but he was keen to work with the more structured songs as well, and we ended up pretty much alternating them.

The Burt-MacDonald Quartet will be in residence at An Tobar from 13-19 March. The Quartet features Raymond MacDonald (saxophones), George Burt (guitar), George Lyle (bass), and Allan Pendreigh (drums). The Quintet version adds Nicola MacDonald (vocals). The band have a new CD, One Bloke, scheduled for release later this year.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2005
 

****STOP PRESS****
Raymond tells us that “we have just secured Keith Tippett to come with us to Mull, but only to record. He can’t do the gig at the end of the week, as he has to be back down south, but we are very excited about being able to bring him back up to work with us.”
 

Related Link

• An Tobar website

Visual artist URSULA ZIEGLER describes the project she is currently preparing for an exhibition in November at An Tobar on the Isle of Mull.

IN SEPTEMBER I spent a period of four weeks as Artist-in-Residence on the land of Tireragan (in care of the local charity Highland Renewal), on the southern tip of the Ross of Mull.

This residency allowed me research-time to gather material and develop ideas.

During this period I established a ‘Four-Weeks-Work pattern’, in which I would walk and Invigilate The Land.

‘Invigilating’ means ‘to keep watch’.

It is usually a term or job description used in a galleries and museums context, and stands for those people looking after shows and exhibitions.

For my project, I decided I would walk and keep watch of the land with the skeleton of a chair, which I had previously stripped of its upholstery.

I would investigate the landscape and its changes under the varying weather and light conditions by making use of this chair. By using it as a frame to look through  as well as to sit on when recording my surroundings it would help me to see, therefore being a ‘tool’ (for my work) as well as ‘object’ (in the context of a show/exhibition).

The research material gathered during this period I will now take to An Tobar where I will be spending a further four weeks as Artist-in-Residence.

Here, with the use of the facilities of An Tobar I will develop and evaluate the research material. The focus for this time will be the ‘Studio Open Days’ on Friday 5 November–Sunday 7 November, at which I will be present to talk about my work. 

The project is funded by Highland Renewal and An Tobar.

© Ursula Ziegler, 2004

Artist MARGARET GOSLEY is showing her works in felt and poetry at An Tobar this month.

MY TEXTILES are not meant to illustrate my words nor do my words explain my textiles.

These are two parts of the one process; a process of self-definition.

I have always felt that if I could just pin down my responses to life with those little black scratches on blank paper; like a lepidopterist trapping and pinning butterflies; then I would arrive at the essence of things; know what was true, for me at least. In this way words have always been a part of my need to strip away and define what is essential.
 
 So it is with textiles; using them in my art is not about decoration or ornamentation. I have a need to define, to start at the beginning of things. In textiles raw wool is the essential fibre, a starting point. The transformation of wool into felt; into a material that can be pushed, pulled, shaped and coloured with dyes, is a journey. The fibre has to be worked long and hard and in the process of making a piece of felt it begins to speak to you through your hands.

There is a relationship between this hand working of the wool and the resulting felt. It is unique to the hand that made it and so it is with words. For me the act of making art is essentially one of self-definition. It is the way in which I test my own responses; how I present myself for closer inspection. This is who I am; this is how I experience the world. I have tried to strip back, to be honest, to arrive at the beginning of things. It is the only place I trust.

“Where the Land meets the sea – an interpretation in felt and poetry” is at An Tobar Art Centre Tobermory, Isle of Mull, until 30 October.

© Margaret Gosley, 2004
 

Related link

• An Tobar website

As a HI~Arts Journal Christmas treat, you can download these impressive music videos from the links below.

CDs of the three bands, including the full-sized videos themselves are available from the An Tobar website.

To play the videos, you require Windows Media Player or another player compatible with WMV file format.  For slower modem users we recommend that you right click on the files and save them to your hard drive before playing.

RADAR - 'My Mind' video

RADAR
‘My Mind’

Download 3.81MB

Ross Baird – vocals, guitar
Gordon Maclean – bass
Russell MacKinnon – drums
Written by RADAR

Kirsty MacLeod - 'Final Call' video

KIRSTY MacLEOD
‘Final Call’

Download 3.35MB

Kirsty MacLeod – vocals
Written by Kirsty MacLeod

Speechless - 'Such a Lie' video

SPEECHLESS
‘Such a Lie’

Download 3.20MB

Kirsty MacKinnon – vocals
Sorren Maclean – guitar, vocals
John MacCrone – bass, vocals
John Barlow – drums, vocals
Written by Speechless

All music produced by Big G.
Video production by Andy MacKinnon.
Director – Gordon Maclean.

These videos will be shown prior to film screenings in the Screen Machine mobile cinema in early 2004.

Related links:

• An Tobar website

Location:  Tobermory, Isle of Mull
Details:  Venue, gallery, café/shop
Programme:  Music, visual arts, dance, drama, children’s shows
Director’s Statement

An Tobar has made itself into an essential part of the local community and the wider Scottish arts scene in the 6 years since we opened. It’s been wonderful and completely inspiring to welcome so many fabulously talented artists and musicians to Tobermory and equally uplifting to be part of the career development of many local young people who all seem to have adopted An Tobar as their own place. For me personally, it feels like a real gift to be able to work here. 15 years ago I couldn’t have imagined that an arts centre would become a reality on Mull and it is quite a privilege to be part of the creation of a growing legacy of work involving some of the most outstanding artists and musicians in Scotland. So many local people have also worked hard to make An Tobar a success – the list would be too long to mention names.

A venue like this has to be a place of inspiration both for the artists (it can’t be the money that attracts them!) and the audience. I feel that this organisation has grown from the local community to become part of the fabric of the island to the point that even people who have no interest in the arts can still feel proud of their local arts centre.
This all sounds a bit idyllic – there are days when the heating shuts down because we forgot to order oil in time or a band miss the ferry they should have caught or the coffee machine breaks down (that should maybe come under the worst disaster section) but there isn’t too much to complain about in the bigger scheme of things.

One point that is continually reinforced here is the value of live music. I love records as much as anyone but there is nothing to beat the unique experience of wonderful music played by fabulous musicians.

Gordon Maclean, Director

As part of our profile of An Tobar, HI-Arts Journal caught up with venue director, Gordon Maclean.

When was the venue established?

Gordon: 1997. Opening concert in June with a specially commissioned piece by Savourna Stevenson with Davy Spillane and Anne Wood called Calman The Dove.
What famous names have taken to the stage over the years?

Gordon: An Tobar has presented concerts by Salsa Celtica, Blazin Fiddles, Aly and Phil, The Scottish Flute Trio, The Dunedin Consort, Martin Taylor, Martyn Bennett, Colin Vearncombe, Tommy Smith (solo and with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra), plus An Tobar commissions featuring Mr McFall’s Chamber, the Cauld Blast Orchestra, Corrina Hewat, and Michael Marra.

What are your big ideas for the future of the venue?

Gordon: To be around for the long term.

Does the venue have a ghost?

Gordon: No ghost but lots of past memories from when it was a school (especially the one about the headmaster being called out of his office just before belting a boy who was happy to receive six of the best on the headie’s return having rifled a tenner from the man’s wallet while he was out).

What was your worst disaster as director?

Gordon: I’ve learned to be philosophical about things going wrong – if I picked out something as the biggest disaster then, guaranteed, something worse would happen the next day.

And what was your biggest triumph?

Gordon: Possibly the Savourna Stevenson piece, as it was the first commission I’d organised, but in a different way there was also a young songwriter who composed a song as part of a project here, about a girl he’d left behind when his family had moved here from Australia. He sent her a copy of the recording and she bought a ticket to Scotland and they’re still together.

If you could have any artist in the world for a one-off special, who would it be, and why?

Gordon: It would have to be Joni Mitchell. I don’t have to be realistic for this question, do I?

Why should people look forward to visiting the An Tobar?

Gordon: Lot’s of people say they love the atmosphere here, and the home baking is something else!

Michael Marra

AN TOBAR commissioned me to write a new set of songs. They have made a number of these commissions and recordings on their own label, Tob Records. They did one with Mr McFalls Chamber and Karen Wimhurst, but the one I listened to quite a lot before I did my own piece was Corrina Hewats Photons In Vapour, to see how someone else had treated the commission.

If you are writing a piece for the theatre the position is straightforward, you are going with the story that someone else has written. With this one the brief was less obvious. I think the series is called Interfaces, and the brief for me was Extremes.

I went over there for two weeks in the first instance, and the day I arrived was the day the war in Iraq broke out. I didnt write anything while I was there. I felt I was on the edge of writing something big about the war.

My brief was Extremes, and here I was on this very beautiful island, and the war was going on. I couldn’t really get that out of my mind, but I ended up writing nothing at all about the war. It was very strange. It was such a big issue that it was impossible to ignore, but in the end I just couldn’t find a way in.

I came home after the two weeks, and I started thinking about the gossip I had heard on the island, and began to work up some material from that. I was struck by two things in particular. One was the fact that gossip seemed to me very necessary in a place like Mull, but the other thing that I noticed mostly through gossip was racism, and specifically anti-English feelings.

I felt that was particularly overt on Mull, and I thought I would throw that at them. It’s like the Glasgow thing — if you try to write about sectarianism at all, it is either going to have to be really great, or it is going to have be very subtle, like planting a thought. It’s not looking to confront or cause trouble, its more like saying do you realise that you are doing this?

One of the songs has a section about a cultural awareness class, which is to teach the local bairns about English culture. I’ve done it in quite a light-hearted way, but my hope is that people will maybe question their own attitudes through that.

Michael Marra's CD 'Silence' (Tob Records)

The songs are all inspired by the folk I ran into in Tobermory. I also wrote a song for a deaf girl song writer I met there, for example. I was asked for five songs initially, but I ended up doing an extra one.

I went over last year to do a song writing workshop on Tobermory, and one of the participants there was a an English guy called Ben Potter.

He was 22 and had gone back to Tobermory High School to do his Highers. He was a nice guy, and seemed very happy, so I wasn’t expecting him to come up with much, because we all know that song writers are introverted, horrible, nasty fowk like me!

He came up with song which was about a woman he had split up with, who had gone back to New Zealand. He sent it to her, and she got on a plane and came back to Tobermory, and two of them moved down to England.

By chance, I had just heard the Mackenzie album [Fama Clamosa, Macmeanmna Records, 2002] and they had featured a very old Gaelic song from Dalmally by a guy called Donald MacNicol who had asked a woman called Lilias Campbell to marry him.

She had refused, but he wrote this song, and they were married, so presumably the song had changed her  mind. I was struck by that connection across a couple of centuries and more, and made a quick wee song just to mark the way it had worked for Ben in the same way.

I have already recorded the music with Kenny Fraser on fiddle and whistles and Gordon MacLean on double bass, and I really enjoyed the sessions.

The first performance is at An Tobar, and I may use a couple of other people locally for that night only, including a harpist and some female singers if they available. Otherwise, it will be the trio, and we will do these songs, and also a number of other new songs I’ve been working on.

Michael Marra & Gordon Maclean at Highland Festival 2003

The record is called Silence, and I’m chuffed with the cover. I kept seeing people in the paper every day with hygienic masks on because of the SARS virus, and I fancied getting one of them and drawing the bit of my face you couldn’t see on it.

Tobermory couldn’t buy one, though – I think there had been a run on them! Instead I got a serviette and drew the missing bits, and taped it to my face. It’s very striking, and I’m thinking of trying to persuade Liz Lochhead to let me do one for her.

We are doing a new version of our show Flagrant Delicht soon, and we need a poster. It’s a new version of the same show, which I think is the best way to do that one. We can make a better show by using what we have and building on it — a new show entirely would need a lot of time that we don’t really have, but we will be able to freshen it up and make it more vital.

Michael Marra performs at An Tobar, Tobermory, 6 June 2003; Royal Highland Hotel, Inverness, 7 June 2003; East Grange Loft, Forres, 8 June 2003; Ballachulish Hall, Ballachulish, 9 June, Wick (tbc); Thurso (tbc).

Michael Marra spoke to Kenny Mathieson.