20 January — 23 February 2025
Online Event
Free to attend
From Monday 20 January – Sunday 23 February, Lauren Gault’s Samhla moving image work will be available to watch below. We recommend watching and listening with headphones on for the full sound experience.
On Thursday 13 February at 7pm, join us online for a special reflective event, where we’ll talk about this work, and the echoes of the wider Samhla project. Book a place here.
You can also see images of the wider Samhla exhibition across Skye, and download the Samhla publication, below.
Samhla was originally displayed at Staffin Dinosaur Museum in July 2024 as part of the wider Samhla exhibition, taking place in sites across North Skye. The moving image work sat alongside the rich catalogue of museum objects, exploring Skye’s palaeontological history and its close links with crofting knowledge and local mythology. It also included sculptures made by Lauren from the voids of replica fossils borrowed from the collection (made by 3D printing CT scans of rocks to reveal the hidden artefact within.)
The film comprises shots from the CT scanning process, accompanied by sound made by members of The School of Plural Futures – who worked with Lauren and Classicist Dr Katharine Earnshaw to explore the myth of echo in Gàidhlig and Classical texts. These works, in these surroundings, payed homage to events and conversations that took place during the research and making of the show – which discussed how materials often leave (or are stolen from) the Highlands for interpretation away from their local and cultural context.
The film is now no longer publicly available, if you would like to watch it please write to info@atlasarts.org.uk
The moving image work featuring fossil samples scanned whilst on short term loan from Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, Staffin Dinosaur Museum, and Dr Elsa Panciroli. These include an ammonite, small vertebrate, turtle carapace, and a sample yet to be identified. 3D print (on supports) of the void areas of ammonite fossil generated from scanning.
The video work soundscape includes ‘Uamh an Òir’ (Cave of Gold), a Gaelic song describing the legend of a piper who, along with his faithful dog enters the Cave of Gold never to return. In some versions of the story, the pipers’ music can be heard coming from the ground, gradually getting fainter. His dog emerges from the cave hairless, most likely after encountering the cave’s fearsome guardian – a green faery hound. Uamh an Òir is arranged and performed by Caleb Wilson, recorded by Richy Carey at èist sound, Cinnseaborg, set amongst a soundscape composed by both artists. Also included are excerpts from ‘Salagrana’, a composition by Sel Freund, made in response to the ammonite scan footage using a prepared piano for Samhla, 2024. These sound accompaniments were developed from the ‘Echo-onCE’ workshop with Lauren Gault, Dr Katharine Earnshaw and The School of Plural Futures, 2024.
XCT scanning performed by the National Research Facility for Lab X-ray CT (NXCT) at the µ-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre, University of Southampton, through the UK Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant EP/T02593X/ 1
With thanks to Dr Fernando Alvarez-Borges, Maria Stagno Navarra, Bethany Harding, Ehsan Nazemi, University of Southampton
Scanning also performed at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow with thanks to Dr Kate Dobson, Matt Divers and Philip Salter.
Gaelic translation by Alasdair Campbell
Uamh an Òir – arranged and performed by Caleb Wilson. Recorded by Richy Carey.
Mac-talla – composed by Richy Carey and Caleb Wilson. Recorded by Richy Carey.
Salagrana – composed and recorded by Sel Freund.
Quotes in order of appearance:
Ausonius, Epigrams on Various Matters (XXXII.—To a Painting of Echo)
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Òran Mòr MhicLeòid’, in A. L. Gillies, Songs of Gaelic Scotland
Virgil, Georgics (1.493-497), Gaelic translation by Alasdair Campbell, English translation Peter Fallon
Anne-Emmanuelle Berger and Rachel Gabara, The Latest Word from Echo
Video editing by Nat McGowan.
Collated exhibition documentation (opens in new tab) of the wider Samhla project, designed by Lesley Sharpe.
Download the full Samhla publication here (opens in new tab), which was printed at ATLAS Arts' Making Publics Press and designed by Lesley Sharpe.
Where this was environmentally responsible, many of the Samhla artworks were dispersed across Skye after the show. This includes mineral feed lick sculptures and buckets which now live with various crofts and collaborators, and Lauren’s sheep worrying sign (originally displayed at Romesdal), which now resides in Raasay.
If anyone sees any of these residual works please let us know! Look out for ghostly archival images and texts inscribed on the sides of buckets.
We would love to continue the conversation about these works, particularly on how sculpture, art and material artefacts are used to hold and activate memories, and how they can carry conversations about land relations.
You can provide feedback on this, and on anything else at ATLAS, anonymously here. You can also leave your contact information if you’d like to chat more.
