Lunchtime Talk with Mhairi Killin

23 March 2021, 13:00
Online Event
Free to attend

This new lunchtime series of talks brings together a range of artists and speakers reflecting on the history, heritage and reality of life in the Highlands and Islands. These informal get-togethers are open to anyone – sit back and listen or get involved as we talk more about artist practice on Skye and the complexity and brilliance of rural life.

Join us on Tuesday 23rd of March at 1 pm for this informal lunchtime event as artist Mhairi Killin will centre her talk around her eclectic artistic practice and how it relates to the context of its landscapes.

Mhairi Killin has lived and worked on the island of Iona since 1997. A multi-discipline artist working with drawing, print, sculpture and installation, Killin’s practice explores the island landscapes that surround and are her home. Her work seeks to understand place from a specific perspective; one of inquiry into how belief structures – religious, mythopoeic, and socio-political – have shaped the physical and metaphysical landscapes she journeys through.

Mhairi will talk about past projects which have developed her perception of island environments as historical and mythological sites of convergence between elemental forces of nature, human life and the divine”.1 She will also discuss her future collaborative project with the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust which will explore the impact of anthropogenic sound, during the NATO exercise Joint Warrior, on the behaviour of cetaceans in the Sea of the Hebrides and asks the wider question as to whether we can consider the extensive presence of the MoD in the Hebrides as a form of extraction; specifically has this very particular presence resulted in a psychological disarticulation between a particular culture and its immediate environment and if so, what are the impacts on the ethnic and natural ecologies of that landscape?

Killin has undertaken residencies at Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada; Arteles, Finland; Cove Park; Hospitalfield; Scottish Sculpture Workshop and RSA residencies at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye and Taigh Chearsabhagh on North Uist. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and is a founding member of the artist collective, 6˚ WEST. Killin was elected to the RSA in 2015.

This talk is part of ATLAS’ lunchtime series which brings together a range of artists and speakers reflecting on the history, heritage and reality of life in the Highlands and Islands. These informal get-togethers are open to anyone – sit back and listen or get involved as we talk more about artist practice on Skye and the complexity and brilliance of rural life.

If we can make it easier for you to attend this event or help with access please get in touch with admin@atlasarts.org.uk in advance of the talk.


as historical and mythological sites of convergence between elemental forces of nature, human life and the divine”.
— Coburn, G. (2013) Geopoetics Journal, Stravaig