On May 1, 2018, Alexander and Susan Maris set out on a journey continuing their research on cultural memory embedded in Scotland's landscape. Called “The Well at the World's End”, its route was based on journeys suggested by various pieces of myth, story and writing, including the 1980s journals of Alexander's father, whose pen name was Findo Gask. Their research parameters are wide, taking in history and ancient stories, languages and use of land.
Starting at The Well of Schiehallion and journeying over land to Tobar nah Aois (The Well of Age/Eternal Youth) on Dun I on Iona, the artists collected an ounce of water from Schiehallion on the Full Moon and combined it with the waters of Iona on the following New Moon. This exhibition is the first in a series of evolving showings of work produced from that performative walk, which also engaged many local communities on its way, and is the product, too, of their long parallel interests in the mythology of landscape and peoples in the Schiehallion area.
Included here are photographs and writings, sound recordings and drawings alongside quartz stones, tapestries, the collected water of sacred wells, seeds from the Fortingall Yew and images of the Ogham alphabet, an early mediaeval alphabet made up of symbols used to write down early Irish language. These symbolic objects, some carried on their journey, were an aid to their investigations into the codes, languages and landscapes of those who came before us.
The Well at the World's End, An Tobar, Argyll Terrace, Tobermory, Mull, 01688 302221, www.comar.co.uk 17 Aug – 25 Oct, Opening night 17 Aug, 6-8pm, All welcome. Tues – Sat, from 11am.
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