Island Viking link inspires artist to explore ‘cultural mixed-ness’
One of Scotland's leading visual artists is to create a new body of work for a west coast island – inspired by evidence that it may have been home to a Viking parliament.
The Norse heritage of the Isle of Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, will be explored by Alberta Whittle as part of a collaboration with a neo-gothic mansion house that plays host to artists and exhibitions every year, and also boasts an extensive permanent art collection.
Glasgow-based Whittle, who has represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale, will be creating work for Mount Stuart House and its grounds. The work will “investigate and interrogate” the idea of Bute having once been a place to decide laws, settle disputes and make key political decisions. Mount Stuart said Whittle's new work, which will be partly inspired by the standing stones which can be found on Bute, is also expected to explore how islands, waterways and gatherings can challenge ideas of separatism at a time of “abrasive immigration policies, xenophobia, the hostile environment, and Brexit limits on movement and exchange”.
The collaboration has been announced eight years after new research was published by archaeologists who believed they had found evidence of the site of a Viking parliament at Croc An Rath, an irregular earthen circle on Bute. The island, which was part of the Norse-gaelic Kingdom of the Isles, is mentioned several times in medieval Icelandic sagas.
Whittle, who was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, moved to Birmingham as a teenager before studying at the art college in Edinburgh and Glasgow. She works in drawing, digital collage, film and video installation, sculpture and performance.
An exhibition of her work, which explores themes of colonialism, migration, racism and Scotland’s links with the transatlantic slave trade, has recently been showcased at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.
Ancestral roots, routes of power and roots of empire are all expected to be explored in her new work for Mount Stuart, which will be on display from June 1. It is understood to be the first time Whittle has been commissioned to create work for an outdoor site in Scotland.
Whittle said: “I am so enthusiastic about this new commission with Mount Stuart. Excavating history has been a direct influence on my practice for a long time, but with this new collaboration I will be creating work that speaks explicitly about islands and waterways as meeting points for cultural mixed-ness and how that manifests in Scotland, on the Isle of Bute.
"Spending time on Bute has been exciting, especially discovering the ancient standing stones from Viking culture that have become crucial transmitters of memory and ritual to ground this new work.”
Sophie Stuart, chair of the Mount Stuart Trust, said: “We’ve been working with Alberta for more than a year on the birth of this project. We’re very excited for this year’s exhibition and the perspective Alberta will bring to the context of Mount Stuart and the island.
“Alberta’s reach is generous and inclusive."