Artist Joanne B. Kaar will work with the UHI Orkney team to explore marine energy transitions in Orkney as part of the ongoing TRANSECTS project.
Joanne, who will be participating in a series of “walkshops” during her year-long artist residency, is a research-based visual artist and maker based in Stromness, Orkney, with her roots in Caithness.
She is proposing to use second-hand modern workwear (jackets / trousers / gloves) from the marine energy sector – All Hands on Deck. These will be deconstructed and hand stitched with text and imagery reminiscent of traditional maritime tattoos, to explore changes in marine energy transitions (whale oil, oil and gas and marine renewables) and coastal community resilience over time. The garments will be collaboratively stitched with words during a series of public workshops.
Joanne has worked and exhibited worldwide, including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, USA, New Zealand, Estonia and Catalonia. In 2012 she received a Museum Galleries Scotland and Creative Scotland Iconic Artists in Iconic Places award for her work on the pressed herbarium of Robert Dick, baker and botanist of Thurso 1811-1866. She has been selected twice as artist in residence by the Crafts Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the first project House Move.
Recent projects include artist in residence for Strathnaver Museum, Bettyhill, Sutherland, in 2024, with the project ShipShape, which documented through woodcut printmaking and letterpress, the making of a full-size replica wooden clinker build boat in the museum.
Joanne is currently researching the mystery of the Magellan Daisy and whalers. A native flower of South America, the Magellan Daisy, (Senecio smithii) has been recorded as being introduced to Caithness, Orkney and Shetland by whalers. If you have seen it growing in Orkney or have any clues to the connection with whalers, Joanne would like to know.
Do you have any old workwear from the Flotta Oil Terminal or the marine renewables industry in Orkney that you could donate to the project? Joanne is also looking for thin coloured wire/plastic to bend into words and stitch down on to the garments. Please contact Joanne at info@joannebkaar.com
