Binocular Viewpoint. Weelies Taing, North Wick Shore, Papay
360 time lapse video still 2:0, 14th August, 2018 5M above sea level © Saoirse Higgins 2019

PapØYcene

PapØYcene is an audio-visual exhibition by artist Saoirse Higgins, presenting research developed over three-years, on the island of Papa Westray.

Survival Tools of the Anthropocene reflects the artist’s engagement with the environment and explores the ways and means of survival along with humanity’s ability to respond to change.

Saoirse’s process is based on participation, and investigates three interconnected island views: the local - from the island looking out to sea; the relational - looking at the action of islanders in caring for their environment, while looking to the future; and the long - the view from the island to the external world and how they interact.

* Local, Relational, Long view inspired by historian Fernand Braudel’s (1902-1985) concept of the ‘longue durée’- the long duration.

Distant Views of the Land. film still © Saoirse Higgins 2019

Angle of Vision

In the summer of 2019, Saoirse Higgins undertook a placement as Embedded Artist with the Scottish Government, joining a consultation team that visited 40 of Scotland’s 93 inhabited islands - from Shetland to the Outer Hebrides, gathering the views of islanders in order to develop Scotland’s first National Islands Plan.

This exhibition showcases newly commissioned work by Higgins resulting from this placement, responding to the consultation process from a different angle, as an artist.

The exhibition includes Angle of Vision – Map of the Geographical Centre Point of 93 inhabited Scottish Islands, a special map developed in collaboration with cartographic design consultant Paul Naylor and technical consultant Chris Mee at Ordnance Survey, alongside a specially designed Island Centre Marker Buoy with the mathematical formula that was used to calculate the island geographical centre points printed on its body, as well as a map developed by 18th century hydrographer Murdoch Mackenzie (1712–1797), on loan from the Orkney Library and Archive in Kirkwall.

Taking its title from a poem by Orcadian poet Robert Rendall (1898-1967), the exhibition focuses on the oscillating movement between two island viewpoints: one looking out from the island edge to sea – the islanders’ horizon; and the other looking in from the sea to the island.

Angle of Vision has been developed by Saoirse Higgins following her placement in 2019 as National Islands Plan (NIP) Embedded Artist, funded by Scottish Government. The NIP consultation process took place between April and July 2019.

The NIP Embedded Artist placement and exhibition have been co-curated by Susan Brind and Mónica Laiseca (Glasgow School of Art).