The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland Nicky Coutts Inverewe Garden and Estate, Wester Ross 21 hectares National Trust for Scotland Project website: www.nickycoutts.com/work/under-the-weather Inverewe is an extraordinary National Trust for Scotland property. A sub- tropical garden on a peninsula in the north west of Scotland, it is surrounded by the almost-bare landscape of Ross-shire and sustained by the warmth of the Gulf Stream. The garden was established in 1862 by Osgood Mackenzie, who travelled widely and dug up a range of exotic plants to bring back to his Scottish estate. There he planted a thick shelterbelt of trees to protect tender specimens, and constructed an amphitheatre of stone terraces by the water’s edge as a suntrap for the ornamental part of the garden. When artist Nicky Coutts was a child, her family holidayed in the area, and she remembers her father holding her up under the gum trees at Inverewe and telling her this was the rst sight she ever saw – a reference to her infanthood in Australia. So it was apt that London-based Coutts should be appointed artist in residence at Inverewe. “I’m interested in the gardens as a kind of mirage, a hallucination,” she says, “re ecting aspects of both the natural environment and our will to alter it and see it differently.” Coutts first proposition was to create a time-based piece, inviting people to Inverewe from the countries from where the plants originated, but that proved dif cult for the organisation to support. Instead, she designed a structure that manages to suggest a shed, a boat prow, a weather station and a small chapel, all at once. Coutt’s structure sits outside the garden wall, down on the shoreline, a weathervane cast in bronze crowning it. The walls are punctuated with circular spyholes containing transparencies of the landscapes that Osgood Mackenzie visited. They are like little stained glass windows, or magic lantern slides from an imaginary talk outlining the story of the garden’s exoticism. If you change the focus of your eyes while gazing at these, you can see the bare landscape of the headland across the bay, a reminder of what lies beneath the lush growth of Inverewe, and what it might return to, as the shelter belt grows thin and the gulf stream alters its course.

The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland Mike Inglis Battleby Estate, Perthshire 14.9 Hectares Scottish Natural Heritage Project website: www.bootlaceandlightning.wordpress.com Scottish Natural Heritage’s conference centre at Battleby, near Perth, hosts a wide range of events and activities in a Victorian country house with modern additions. The buildings also house many SNH staff and the grounds surrounding the house contain a wide and important range of species. Mike Inglis describes his practice as ‘instinctive’. This is borne out by the way in which his residency at Battleby unfolded, as he developed a variety of responses to the brief and used different tactics to engage individuals from the host organisation in his work. At the outset, he established an open studio in a small garden building so that people could drop in and see him work, using the natural materials of the site to make a range of imagery and prints. As previously mentioned, he devised innovative ways of contacting staff through the internal mail and invited them to walk with him in the grounds and share their stories. He blogged about the progress of his residency so that others could share in the process. These investigations fed into one large work – the ‘Tree Church’. This is a small structure hidden amongst Battleby’s shrubs and trees, made mostly from recycled windows and incorporating a small room with chairs. In this room the visitor can sit and read some of the key texts that inspired Inglis’ work – such as Biophilia by Edward O. Wilson – or look through the ‘archive’ of natural materials, or simply contemplate the landscape beyond the structure. Inglis says that “the starting point was the idea of an ark – an ecosystem.” To one side, there is a small open courtyard enclosing a young rowan. The little sanctuary faces out of Battleby’s grounds, towards open countryside, and is overlooked by a skeletal wooden tower, on top of which is mounted the print that stood outside Inglis’s studio throughout his residency. It reads: ‘Everything is Hopeless But I Feel So Optimistic.’

The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland James Winnett Cuningar Loop, Glasgow 15 Hectares Forest Enterprise Scotland Project website: www.cuningarloop.tumblr.com Cuningar Loop is a former urban land ll site that has been ‘re-wilded’ by plants and wildlife. Mostly enclosed by a looping turn in the River Clyde, it has long been something of a secret space. As part of the legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, fifteen acres of this promontory is being turned into a woodland park under the auspices of the Forestry Commission, and reconnected to the built environment on the opposite bank of the river by a pedestrian and cycle bridge. James Winnett’s brief was to make imaginative connections between the communities surrounding Cuningar Loop and this place that they had little or no access to for the previous 200 years. During the rst stage of his residency he got to know the site – its layers of history, its new ecosystem and the traces of the few people who continued to use it. He speaks of the excitement of these early days, of watching for badgers at night and “listening to all the animal sounds and the chimes of an ice-cream van whose lights I could see through the trees, circling Dalmarnock.” Working with community groups, he initiated conversations and held workshops to create new objects, some from the debris that came from the site – glassware mutated by the burning of waste, strange conglomerate materials. When the contractor responsible for landscaping the park took over, the site changed from a wild space to one subject to health and safety regulations, with accompanying rules about hardhats, uorescent jackets and boots. It became dif cult to bring members of the local community into Cuningar at this point. Winnett responded to the challenge by creating a mobile museum – a handmade display case – containing a variety of interesting artefacts unearthed from Cuningar. These sparked conversations between Winnett and a broad range of people. Having engaged the imagination of local residents, Winnett ran a series of stone carving workshops which served as a springboard for ideas of how to deal with some of the most evocative materials on site – blocks of sandstone which were once part of tenement buildings cleared from the Gorbals in the 1960s. Winnett later drew on these stones to develop The Cuningar Stones – a permanent installation of fteen stones that were originally part of the buildings cleared from the Gorbals in the 1960s. The stones carry architectural features alongside the scars of demolition with Winnett’s own carving intervening in layers to explore the complex social, industrial and natural history of the site.

The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland Karen Rann Brodick Castle and Country Park, Isle of Arran 72 hectares National Trust for Scotland Project website: www.natureofchange.wordpress.com Brodick Castle, Gardens and Country Park are situated on the Isle of Arran, sloping down towards the sea under the peak of Goatfell. Like Inverewe, the property is run by the National Trust and the garden and grounds have an impressive range of unusual trees and rhododendrons. Karen Rann’s brief for her residency included three aims: to explore the island and get to know the people living there; to create new and potentially challenging work exploring what is unique and special about the site; and to develop her own working practice. Like many of her fellow artists, she approached this through a process of walking, talking, looking and thinking. “The best ideas don’t come when you are following an agenda,” she says, “the best ideas come when you are free to play.” Her walks with the rangers from the Brodick Estate revealed certain distinctive qualities of Arran’s environment. Her first proposal centred on Arran’s unique geology, the way the island’s earlier shoreline is visible in the ‘raised beaches’ that ring the island. Concerns about the possible spread of phytophthora (a kind of mould that causes plant rot) prevented this happening. Rann had to come up with a new solution that would be simple enough not to raise objections from the many stakeholders. She recalled another story a ranger told her, about a plant unique to Arran, arising from the cross-pollination of the whitebeam and the rowan, resulting in a type of whitebeam with scalloped leaves. Rann had been reading Sara Maitland’s Gossip from the Forest during her residency and it in uenced her thoughts about plants and their interaction. She decided to hand-alter a stand of trees in a rhododendron grove, cutting many of the thick glossy leaves into pinnate* shapes, as if altered and in uenced by the native rowan. The beauty of the work lies in its combination of simplicity and depth. As Rann says “I took nothing in to the grove but scissors and took nothing away.” Staff who had become drawn in to the project made their own creative interventions in the grove and designed enigmatic signage for it. At the launch of the nished work, Sara Maitland read a new short story, conjuring a love story between two trees, inspired by Rann’s subject matter. The work itself will slowly disappear over the course of time according to natural processes.

The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland Rachel Mimiec Natural Scenic Area of Glencoe & Ben Nevis 90,344 hectares Scottish Natural Heritage Project website: www.scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/sensing-landscape Scotland has forty locations that are designated as Natural Scenic Areas by Scottish Natural Heritage. They encapsulate the most dramatic and beautiful concentrations of Scotland’s natural wealth. The Glencoe and Ben Nevis area includes not only the highest mountain in the British Isles, but some of the most spectacular and historically resonant locations imaginable. To be offered a residency to make work in response to Scotland’s scenic areas was both an exciting and daunting prospect. The sheer size of these areas and the challenge of getting to know them necessitated a narrowing down of options. Mimiec, after exploring three of the NSAs, opted for Glen Coe and Ben Nevis, not least because it was possible to access the area by public transport from her base in Glasgow. Through the autumn, winter and spring she walked through the area; sometimes on her own, often with people who knew the landscape well and could give Mimiec new perspectives through their occupations and interests; rangers, a deerstalker, a geologist, an outward bound leader, hillwalking groups, rock climbers and SNH staff. She talks of an ‘invisible practice’. To an outside eye, an artist walking in the landscape, re ecting, taking in sights is not visibly ‘working’. There can be a pressure for work to be on view, for ‘evidence’ of the residency to be produced at an early stage. Unlike many of the other artists, Mimiec’s practice is studio based. The culmination of her residency was the production of twelve separate prints, folded and packaged in a similar way to ordnance survey maps, but in a palette of subtle tones derived from the landscape. Each print is a visualisation of one walk – a concentration of abstract and gurative glimpses derived from the sights seen, colours encountered, stories shared and the route that was walked over. To complete and echo the many human exchanges of which the residency was made, Mimiec gifted each of her map-prints to individuals who had accompanied her on the twelve walks.

The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland Rob Mulholland Cuningar Loop, Glasgow 15 Hectares Forest Enterprise Scotland Project website: www.cuningarloop.wordpress.com Sculptor Rob Mulholland was also commissioned to produce art work for the Cuningar Loop site. Included in his brief was the host organisation's aspiration that he would develop a permanent work to mark the main entrance to the park. Like Winnett, Mulholland worked hard to engage with the communities in Dalmarnock, Bridgeton and Rutherglen, involving them in the creative process through open discussions, art workshops and site visits. These communities all border the park and it was vital to engage and include them in the artistic interventions in the park. Mulholland's initial approach was to organise on-site events to unearth local stories and history, including an 'archaeological dig.' Local children, including a Scout Group, were invited to participate in the dig, unearthing buried historical artefacts, revealing the complex history of the site. Mulholland developed several proposed artworks for Cuningar Loop, some temporary, some site speci c. An example of one of these was to re- use bricks found on the site from which he would create a sculptural ' oor' that peeled back to reveal the myriad of found objects unearthed from the archaeological dig. The partner organisations raised funds for a large entrance sculpture and commissioned Mulholland to create a design based on ideas developed during his time working with the communities. The sculpture incorporates the aspiration within the community to create an improved environment for familiies. The design and fabrication of Evolve, an entrance sculpture involved young people from the area, who learned new skills in the process, reconnecting with the manufacturing and industrial history of the area. The entrance sculpture represents the creativity of local hands as well as local minds. Young people who are often excluded from regeneration developments were actively part of the process of physical change in the East End of Glasgow and helped to create a better environment for the whole community.

The Artistic Reflections publication will be available from June 2017 For more information, or to order a copy, please contact: susechristie@googlemail.com Designed by Marco Scerri, edited by Susan Christie and supported by Creative Scotland Steve Messam Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park 186,340 hectares Project website: www.mistandmountains.wordpress.com Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park was designated in 2002 and covers 720 square miles of outstanding landscape adjacent to the central belt of Scotland. It is within an hour’s drive of over 50% of Scots and is the most heavily used area of countryside for recreation, with around four million visitors per annum. Steve Messam, the artist selected to work within the park says, "I like working with landscapes and creating temporary works which peel back the layers of narratives they're made from.” He was particularly interested in the historical remnants of other ages and uses, like the gold mine near Balquidder or coming across disused roads or old segments of fences on top of high mountains. Because of the daunting size of the park, Messam concentrated on the north east corner, the area furthest away from large centres of population. With a park ranger he walked the path of the old railway through Glen Ogle, now part of a national cycle route. It runs over some impressive stone viaducts, and Messam was drawn to the idea of the lost sounds of the steam trains that rst brought visitors from the cities. In the course of the residency, he proposed installing steam train whistles over eighteen miles of the old line from Callander. Triggered in sequence, they would echo around the hills and describe the changing landscape across the Highland Fault using sound. So far it has only been possible to test this along a two-mile stretch, but fundraising is underway to realise the full eighteen mile version. ‘By using sound over such a large distance it does all the things I’ve tried to do with other projects but in a much more clean and succinct way. Despite its scale and ambition and the hardness of the landscape and weather, it survives as something so incredibly delicate. The echoes do something so subtle you can only get it by being there.’ - Steve Messam

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