Solastalgia

By lizzie wood

Comic

h: 29 w: 21 d: 1 (cms).

I hope you will consider this piece on the freedom, or the lack thereof, of wild spaces, or the lack thereof. Freedom is an interesting word to use for wild places, as we rarely consider the land as something with agency, with intent, with choice- it just is. It follows a path laid out for it in a greater order of things. But there are two types of freedom. Freedom to and freedom from. As a human, I have the freedom to go into the hills, to climb, to walk, to sleep, to find joy, peace, solace, sadness - and acting according to my freedom, wild places are a backdrop for my choices and my actions. But the freedom from hurt, from persecution, from displacement - these are all freedoms afforded to me according to conventions and laws, and should they be infringed upon, I can speak up and challenge it. Not so for wild places, which by all accounts should also receive the same freedom from which I do. When I avoid a muddy hollow in a path and erode the peat beside it, when I scratch my crampon over exposed rock, when I smear on a 1000-year-old lichen with my rock shoes, removing some; who speaks up? Freedom for wild places is freedom from destruction and degradation. When our freedoms to, negate those freedoms from, there are no freedoms to be found at all.

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Stormshield

By alistair young

Digital photography

h: 25 w: 50 d: 1 (cms).

The village of Kilbride is sheltered from a winter storm by the mountain wall of Blaven and Clach Glas on the Isle of Skye. On a wild winter’s day of gale and heavy rain, weather too wild to be up on the summits, I was wondering what it would be like on the tops, when Blaven briefly cleared and called across the storm clouds, it’s like this! A fleeting moment of wild joy.

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Allt nan Uamh

By brian d hodgson

Etching

h: 34 w: 38 d: 1 (cms).

The etching plate for "Allt nan Uamh" was drawn in a beautiful and remote location in Assynt, where a stream cascades off a mountainside to fall on a nest of egg-like rocks and disappears below ground. In spate the whole area becomes a torrent flowing down the glen and is joined by another spring – it is a complex area of underground rivers and caves. The place feels timeless and the centre of it all, which I think it once was to some people: “Allt nan Uamh” translates as ‘Stream of the Caves’, referring to the nearby ‘Bone Caves’ where animal bones and human burial remains have been found. Drawn on a grounded copper plate entirely on location over many years, returning to be here has become a ritual, and it continues. The plate is ongoing, and only suspended for printing. Self-integration with environments over time, drawing, taking photographs, and the erosive processes I use, together produce artefacts and artworks that consider the meaning of an individual's actions and their finite time and space, within the vastness of existence.

£450

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To enquire about this artwork, please go to the artist page.

Ice Watch

By Sarah Casey

Glacial flour on glass watchface

h: 5 w: 5 d: 1 (cms).

Negative space drawings on glass watch faces made with glacial flour ( sediment left by retreating glaciers ). The light passes though the unmarked areas , casting a shadow of absence on the wall / surface around the work. Images were gathered during field work visit to sites where glacial archaeology has been found in the Swiss alps during residency at Musee d’art du Valais (2023). (“Ice Watcher” is the name for the app used by the canton to report discoveries of human artefacts revealed by melting ice.) The shadowy presence recalls not only the absence of the ice retreated from these areas, but also the impossible ideal of sublime imaginary that these mountain vistas evoke. My recent collaboration with glacial archaeologists in Switzerland, in high alpine regions, accessible only on foot and subject to harsh conditions of weathering and erosion has prompted me to rethink the nature of wild places. While these sites are now considered remote, archaeology shows these places were once busy transit routes linking Europe. Moreover, the anthropogenic traces in melting ice -from archaeology to microscopic chemicals– highlight artificiality of the boundary between human and nature. I realised ‘wild’ is a relative term. With freeze and thaw, these environments are in a state of flux. Now evermore so due to climate emergency. The environment is changing, and my recent work has sought to amplify these invisible signs of change and human entanglement in these ‘wild’ places, focusing not on what is lost (the ice) but what emerges. What does a wild mean to me? Wilderness is not ‘out there’ or other than the human, it’s a recognition of fragile ecology of human and more-than-human relationships for which we are implicated and consequently have a responsibility of care as co-habitants. My current work looks for ways to become more attentive to this looking at Scotland as a post-glacial landscape.

£350

Please Note: If you are overseas and interested in a purchase, please note that there will be additional costs for postage and packaging added to this price. Feel free to enquire about this using the button below.

To enquire about this artwork, please go to the artist page.

My Wilderness

By ana norrie-toch

Film

h: 1 w: 1 d: 1 (cms).

To enquire about this artwork, please go to the artist page.

Vision of wilderness 2050

By Young Somerset

Online

h: 1 w: 1 d: 1 (cms).

I’m entering a piece of group work which is a mixture of creative writing and photography. I work for a youth work charity called Young Somerset. Over the summer we hosted a summer school collaboration with an Australian creative writer Craig Dent and a group of young people from West Somerset aged 11-14, who spent 10 days creating a 3D vision of wilderness in 2050. They used a 3D camera to photograph various locations in Exmoor National Park and wrote the narrative themselves. The 3D story world can be viewed in the link below- but is best viewed on a VR headset.

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Curlew

By samuel heath

Watercolour

h: 21 w: 30 d: 1 (cms).

Curlews are integral parts of many different ecosystems. They can act as low cost bioindicators as their presence will show both aquatic and invertebrate diversity in their breeding grounds as well as a species richness of plants. They also move nutrients around in their faeces. Their seasonal migration between wetlands and uplands means they have important roles in balancing soil chemistry and nutrient cycles in different habitats across the country. A lack of their presence in prime breeding grounds signifies an unhealthy and unhappy ecosystem that has very little biodiversity. In addition to this, their habitats are being destroyed by intensive farming practices and the planting of timber forests, inturn, rapidly decreasing their population. Between only 1995 and 2020, there has been a 48% reduction in their population and their UK conservation status is now red. This is not just bad news for Britain as their UK breeding population is of international importance. Their decreasing population is yet another lack of freedom for wild places. The land is being manicured, whether it be the use of pesticide or the drainage of the moors and bogs they depend on. The agriculture and timber industry are destroying the habitats further. This is a species that desperately needs our help because we are rapidly killing them and pushing them ever closer to extinction. I don’t want the curlew to be another dodo. I want my children’s children’s children to be able to hear their warbling call and laugh silently whilst watching one catch its prey through a bird hides window. I want them to know what a curlew is - not a dead bird - an incredible bird that lives forever and helps the ecosystem to stay in balance.

To enquire about this artwork, please go to the artist page.