An exhibition featuring work by the 2026 MA Contemporary Art and Archaeology graduates opens at the Northlight Gallery, Stromness, on Friday, November 13.
Wicktharlite showcases work by Jackie Flanagan, Evi Evangelou, Susan Pearson, Rowan Ormiston and Eòghann Mac Colla – its title drawing on key concepts that underpin the artists’ practices, bringing together words from different linguistic and cultural traditions.
Paes-wisp (Shetland dialect, meaning “tangle”), ceangailte (Scottish Gaelic, “connected”), kinesis (Greek, “movement”), thar (Irish, “beyond”), and wanearthlie (Scots, “unearthly” or “preternatural”) each suggest particular ways of understanding place, memory, identity and transformation.
Susan Pearson’s engagement with paes-wisp explores questions of making kin, (is)landness, and relationships between human and non-human worlds. Eòghann Mac Colla’s ceangailte draws on archipelagic perspectives to investigate situationism within his immediate surroundings, including his farmland and other metaphorical islands. Evi Evangelou’s kinesis informs an exploration of movement, migration and belonging through cloth and material transformation.
Jackie Flanagan’s thar engages with ancestry, memory and the realm beyond the visible present. Rowan Ormiston’s wanearthlie considers the potential of the Scottish folkloric figure of the Cailleach as a means of developing alternative relationships with the environment.
Eòghann Mac Colla explores archipelagic understanding to investigate situation-ship in his immediate surroundings on farmland and other metaphorical islands. These works were created on a quest to find the stolen hour of “British Summertime”, that disappears every October.
The exhibition runs until Monday, November 23, and the gallery is open daily (except Sundays) from noon until 4pm.
