Cairngorm Mountain Walk

Installation, 2018

Inspired by Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland, this installation explores the many ways a mountain landscape is encountered through walking — through movement, weather, sound, material and attention.

At altitude, the Cairngorm landscape holds different scales and experiences together: delicate upland flora alongside exposed rock faces; the movement of birds and insects against vast geological forms; moments of intimacy within an immense terrain. The installation translates these layered encounters into a spatial experience that unfolds like a walk through the mountains.

The work traces a route through different mountain zones, moving from upland meadow, through waterfall and ascent, across the high plateau and into a remote craggy clearing. Each section responds to the sensory and material qualities of the landscape encountered along the journey.

The installation incorporates:

• Upland meadow: over 3,500 individual prints made directly from botanicals
• The plateau: Indian ink monoprints
• Stag rocks: ink and charcoal drawings
• Sound: field recordings of waterfall, wind, rock and ptarmigan

Together, these elements create a slow, immersive encounter with mountain terrain, inviting viewers to experience landscape through movement, duration and material presence rather than as something simply observed from a distance.