Meet the new Phase 2 artists
The Remembering Together team and the Perth & Kinross partners are delighted to announce the artists who will be leading on Phase 2 of the project.
Helen O’Brien
I’m looking forward to offering a positive creative outlet to reflect on this tricky time for lots of people, and I hope these workshops can offer people time and space to discuss and share their stories. The final bronze casts will aim to capture the significant, poignant objects and memories relevant to the people of Blairgowrie & Rattray.
I’m a visual artist and maker, who sees the creative potential in materials, ideas and people. I value the experience of hands on making to inform and understand what I create, and see this as an ongoing dialogue with materials and processes. This way of working also relates to my experience as an arts coordinator organising, co-curating and facilitating creative projects with children, young people and communities.
My proposal for this project is to collaborate with community groups in Blairgowrie & Rattray to create bronze cast objects and items to represent the communities unique and collective experiences and stories of this time. Similar to the stones of a Cairn, these objects could be grouped together as a cluster, or situated in significant places across the community as a connective trail.
My approach is to offer hands on making sessions to get everyone involved, as I find the process of making and using our hands allows people to focus on what they are doing, and relaxes people in a way which then enables ideas and conversation to flow. Once the objects are collectively chosen, we will bring The Mobile Foundry to Blairgowrie to cast these on site (which is the most exciting bit), and participants will have a chance to get involved in this process.
Alec Finlay
The pandemic is an ongoing event which makes it all the more important to remember the loss of loved ones, and recognise the changes in so many people’s lives. In particular, as someone with Long Covid, I know how important it is to listen to those whose health and life possibilities were affected. I’m inspired by the opportunity to work in a part of the world that I have always loved, and work with people to create a communal memorial, which helps the process of healing, ameliorates grief, offers support to those who feel forgotten, and, where necessary, draws attention to failures in terms of healthcare and government policy.
Alec Finlay is a poet and artist, with over 30 publications. His practice embraces sculpture, place-awareness, books, poetry, prints, mapping, audio-visual, and new technology. It also considers aspects of healing, recuperation, and acts of remembrance. For almost three years he has worked with communities affected by the COVID pandemic, in particular bereaved families, and those with Long Covid. He was commissioned to create the national memorial in Pollok Park, Glasgow: this includes a book of memories of the pandemic, I remember, with an audio version read by Robert Carlyle, which remains the single largest collection of people’s experiences of this ongoing event.
The proposal ‘cairn mountain’, or ‘mountain cairn’ envisages a cairn that is also a mountain–but a mountain that one can sit within, recalling Nan Shepherd’s famous suggestion that one goes into, not onto, a mountain. The artwork is a simple sculptural form that represents the skyline of a real mountain, created using the north-south and east-west silhouettes, recognisable to all. The engagements will include ‘I remember’ workshops, as a means of recording people’s diverse experiences of the pandemic. Many lives were lost during the pandemic, but we must also attend to those who became ill, or lost their old lives.
Gregor George
Having worked on stage 1 of the project, I decided to pursue this opportunity as it has the potential to make a lasting positive impact in Perth City Centre. The opportunity to create an artwork that is beneficial to the community, whilst working with the groups impacted most by the pandemic, is something I can really get behind.
From a young age I have enjoyed making things from scratch and working with my hands, I got interested in graffiti and street art as a teenager and subsequently started studying Art and Design at Perth College UHI, eventually graduating in May 2020. I have continued to pursue creative opportunities as a professional, the main focus of my creative practice being the creation of engaging artworks that activate spaces. Working with local community groups and facilitating opportunities for co-creation has also become a major part of my creative practice.
In response to the provided brief for the Remembering Together: Phase 2 project, it is my intent to create a series of engaging site-specific installations which reimagine the concept of traditional cairn sculptures. Through a schedule of carefully considered workshops and engagement sessions with local community groups I will use creative activities to explore key themes which will inform the final solution.
Helen McCrorie
During the pandemic I worked on a virtual choir project for a community choir, to send musical videos- with messages of support and footage of local places- to care homes in Strathearn. The videos were much appreciated by care home residents and staff and were also shared widely by the Strathearn community. Expanding on this, I hope to bring local people together in a cross-generational filmmaking project, weaving sound and song with local footage, to reflect on and celebrate features of the Strathearn community, that were and are a source of strength and solace. Having lived in Strathearn for over 10 years, I am in awe of the great local work done by care-home and charity workers, and community groups and volunteers.
Helen McCrorie is an artist who collaborates with others, through creative workshops and documentary methods, to make films, sound-works, events and installations. These works celebrate community activism, care and creativity while questioning dominant values and power structures.
The approach acknowledges the problems of “Remembering Together” given that people living within the same locality had very different experiences and outcomes from the pandemic. For some these are deeply traumatic, including mental and physical health, and losing loved ones. People often need privacy and intimacy to process grief and trauma. Strathearn has some special places that people go to, to remember loved ones, such as the Knock in Crieff and Lady Mary’s Walk, but for people with disabilities and the elderly these can be difficult or impossible to access. The approach is mindful of the anger and frustration felt for the injustices of the pandemic. Local charities, development trusts and community groups within Strathearn help to create community cohesion and combat rural poverty and isolation and and these were important sources for strength and solace during the pandemic and beyond. We will make a community film-poem in 16mm film and sound, which will celebrate these and allow reflection on special local places of remembrance. The film will be made with accessibility in mind, and the storyboard will develop through creative workshops with care home residents and workers, and local school children.
Kristie De Garis
I was drawn to Remember Together because of my own experiences of Covid, which has influenced my life and work profoundly. Through necessity, I have remained Covid cautious, and after four years this can absolutely feel socially isolating, but in taking this step back from the world, I have found and begun to share a deep and healing connection to the land, stone and nature around me. This informs my approach to this act of remembrance–the physical structure, which people will gather around, and the sensitivity to individual and ongoing experiences of Covid.
Kristie De Garis is a photographer, writer and drystone waller based in Perthshire. In 2023 Kristie was commissioned to write a book, blending the craft of drystone with her experiences as a mixed race woman, and the healing impact of moving from Edinburgh to Perthshire, rebuilding her life through a connection to the land, drystone, and photography.
Local landscapes inform all aspects of her work.
Stone's enduring nature is a comfort, and this memorial is inspired by stone structures and their associations with remembrance. The design adopts the traditional sheep stell, a field fold which provides shelter for flocks in harsh weather. A true memorial, the structure bears witness to individual and collective experiences of the pandemic, all that has been lost, and importantly, all that continues to be lost.
Place is also an important part of the memorial, and the design will directly relay elements of the local geology. I look forward to working with local communities to create a memorial that feels not only part of the landscape, but also part of the experiences of Kinross.
I also believe that drystone is capable of returning to the forefront of our cultural imagination in terms of public art and outdoor design. It is an ideal approach in terms of sustainability, and we live in a time that requires our awareness of these issues.
The past remains relevant and should influence our future.