Collins gallery, Glasgow
20/08/2010 - 18/09/2010
Part of ‘Is a thing lost if you know where it is’ Islands project, exploring stories of the sea in the Hebrides
With Gerry Loose, Morven Gregor, Ian Stephen, Emmanuelle Waeckerlé
catalogue cover
map of the crossing
Fourteen skins
Fourteen skins
Fourteen skins
Fourteen skins
The crossing – beginning, middle, end
a story from the Limfjord
A core element of the project examines a proposition I made to compare the roles of the storyteller and the artist to the characters in the legend of Echo and Narcissus.
JL, MG, IS and EW began the crossing of Central Scotland, by the Forth and Clyde canal system then IS and EW departed to make a crossing of the north of Scotland, from Stromness to Stornoway while JL and MG’s rowing was still in progress. The correspondence and contrast between the two crossings is the subject of the Crossing Alba exhibition and catalogue.
A storyteller is, like Echo, restricted in that he can only repeat what he has heard but not initiate. And the artist, like Narcissus is also restricted because he is bound to filter all perceptions through his own consciousness. (E Waeckerlé)
These stories and the crossings of water have been retold in a range of different mediums; video works, a series of photogravures, two photographic diptyches and customised male and female garments, both showing an image based on the international signal for “I am restricted in my ability to manoeuvre”.
The catalogue contains traces and written logs of both journeys by all involved.