Three stars
One or two chuckles - of location recognition, maybe - filtered into the richly textured soundscore for this installation-cum-performance by Jamie and Lewis Wardrop. However even if the landscape of South Harris was an unfamiliar prospect, the footage of a long-abandoned home with its decaying interiors and clutter of personal effects reached out to all of us. Stirred thoughts of loss and of leaving that shaded from the realm of stone and mortar towards mortality itself.
The upstairs performance space in CCA proved a tight squeeze for all the ideas that the Wardrop brothers brought to their Cryptic Nights event.The brothers themselves - along with mixing desks and video feeds - were on a high dias in the centre of the room. Ranged around this substantial outcrop were some columns,housing small monitors and topped with memorabilia from their engagement with the derelict croft and the history of Harris itself. The audience fitted in, mostly along the walls. This hugger-mugger intimacy worked best when the brothers moved into a recreated nook in the corner, sat down on a couple of chairs and - with Lewis on the fiddle, Jamie spieling of times, and local folk, gone by - drew us into the spirit of the old traditional ceilidh gatherings. But as images flooded onto the walls and screens, conjuring up rugged landscapes and ever-present sea, or lingering over the forlorn remnants of an absent life, the thought occurred that The Dwelling Place needed more room: a promenade format, perhaps, where different aspects could be lingered over and thoroughly appreciated before the lads whisked us into the live ceilidh episode that so vividly honours a vanishing island culture.
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