For this year’s Island Going residency we worked with Andrew and Meg Rodger from Ocean Guides to deliver a dynamic programme of six days at sea and four days on land – based on the island of Berneray with Chris and Mary at John’s bunkhouse.
This year’s participants – chosen from an open call application were Rachael Bailey, Alasdair Doyle, Dan Shay, Bethany Rigby, Beatrice Lopez.
Ocean Guides took the participants on a memorable and hopefully inspiring sailing adventure from Berneray, Sound of Harris, St Kilda, Loch Resort and back in 6 days, where they then settled into John’s Bunkhouse for a further 4 days to recuperate, contemplate and consolidate their ideas / works.
On the voyage, participants quickly learned the basics of running a sailing boat in varied weather conditions and successfully became a tight crew, gaining their sea-legs, while still pursuing artistic ambitions afloat and ashore. Ocean Guides was established to support these types of adventures and aside from the basics of running ‘the ship’ afloat and ashore, their professional expertise in marine science and arts underpins activities.
The success of Island Going 2019 was greatly enhanced by the commitment of participants. If not taking a watch, sleeping or eating, they were sketching, filming, talking big ideas, listening and recording ocean sounds, observing and filming the seabed or monitoring progress on charts. Ashore, the islands offered a rich and varied landscape to explore and interpret, where the historic and contemporary human activity interplayed with a resilient and dominant nature.
Photos copyright © Meg Rodger , © Jon Macleod, © Dan Shay, © Beatrice Lopez
An exhibition based on the residency will take place in several venues in early summer 2020
The residency was sponsored by Downpour Gin
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