Arran art collective Machrie Moor story goes on display
Six Arran artists, known as the Machrie Moor Artists Collective, are currently exhibiting a shared body of work at the Barony Centre in Scotland’s craft town of West Kilbride.
The exhibition, which opened at the start of this week and will continue until Saturday April 23, is called Island Stories and features the work of artists from Arran, Bute, Cumbrae and Mull.
As part of Visit Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022 the Barony Centre commissioned artists from the various islands to contribute to its Island Stories exhibition.
Six Arran artists, namely Assja Baumgartner-Gaile, Coral Smith, Faye Waterlow, Fiona Doubleday, Kirsty Forsyth and Lynn Jones, took on the challenge.
The group decided to focus on the Machrie Moor site with its standing stones as their inspiration and formed the Machrie Moor Artists Collective.
A spokeswoman for the group said: ‘Individually and collectively we researched the Bronze Age, taking fragments of clues to how the people lived on the island back then and the significance of Machrie Moor. Between us we work across a range of media to include clay, textiles, paper and metal.
‘We found new ways to work together and grow individually and as a collective to produce work that constructs a living narrative of a world once lived.
‘Each artist in the collective created work that “spoke” to other pieces in the exhibition making a body of work ultimately, tells one story.
‘At the start of this journey we put sustainable practice front and centre in our plans.
‘All the artists then considered both their creative processes and outcomes so that the work might tread lightly on the planet.
‘We recycled, reduced and reused and have produced a thoughtful response to the place art can play in a more sustainable way of life.’
The Island Stories exhibition follows on from an earlier exhibition called West Kilbride Stories.
Other exhibitions scheduled throughout the year, hosted by the Barony Centre and Craft Town Scotland, will be stories from Scottish potters, photographers, artists, and Christmas stories in December. that,