Black Middens Project

I completed 'Black Middens' (a project funded by VARC Visual Arts in Rural Communities) in 2010. During the project I explored the potential power of a place name, specifically in relation to colour. “Black Middens” is the name of a Bastle House under the care of English Heritage. Whilst documenting the ruined Bastle House and taking colour samples of it's surface, I was drawn to the miniature landscapes of lichen and moss on the walls of the building. I animated the images I collected and added sound samples and map references to link it to the wider landscape. The resulting work (made with the assistance of sound artist Phil Ogg) is mesmerising; both orientating and disorientating. It reveals the beauty of micro landscapes whilst also conjuring up the darker side of this area's border reiving history. I also made a series of paintings that reference colour in the names of places surrounding the bastle house.