COLLABORATIVE ART & ARCHITECTURE PROJECT

AN TURAS

At the very beginning of this collaborative project, the appointed group of artists and architects resolved to create a work that would, for its audience, be unique and elemental in visual, physical and temporal terms. A work that would be totally unified (physically and conceptually) in respect of its art and architecture content; a work related to and sympathetic to the site, topography and elements of Tiree; a work of individuality, epic in scale, aesthetically beautiful and of contemporary and Scottish cultural significance.

In researching our subject, we looked at, visited and photographed a broad spectrum of Tiree’s architecture (both ancient and modern). We explored the island thoroughly, walked through varieties of landscape and seashore observing the diminutive and the immense. We viewed part of the island from the seaward side and from the aircraft - noting views, elemental meeting points, geological features, man-made and weather-induced interventions. Also important were the micro cultures of lichens and mosses, the stratification of the gneiss, the composition of the machair and the sand and pebble beaches from which we collected samples of material.

The visual richness and flatness of the landscape, enormity of the sky, and sound, touch and smell of the elements, and the composition of the surfaces below our feet were particularly noticeable. This research and the simple elements of Tiree formed our palette and vocabulary for the creation of An Turas.

At an early stage of our deliberations the undulating stone dyke and underlying bedrock were identified as essential site assets to contextualise and build our concept around.

We also concluded that the fundamentals which make Tiree special are:

Also, the `added value' of the interventions of nature through moss and lichen growth, and by extremes of weather that cause pitting, salt spray, bitumen run off etc..

Look at the Tiree Themes link for visual evidence of what makes Tiree special