Pelagic Sculpture Project, Shetland

Went to Whalsay today, very windy and after my last experience at sea slightly apprehensive, it is only a 40 minute ferry crossing, but the sea was looking pretty choppy, in the end it was fine, what was all the fuss about! Whalsay is a separate island to the east of the Shetland mainland and is home to a strong fishing community, we were going to meet a lady called Margie an ex- herring gutter married to a fisherman and daughter of a former gutter. She has very kindly offered to gather together a group of Whalsay ex-gutter ladies for me to meet at a later point. Margie was a delightful and amusing lady, full of stories and hospitality. We were also visiting the school to discuss a workshop in 2 weeks time and then the days’ finale was spent in the heritage centre meeting some more lovely people and looking at the artifacts, photos and documentation in the small collection of treasures, all donated and meticulously cataloged. To be able to see herring nets, gutting knives, smookies, baskets and many other objects was very inspiring. They also had albums full of diary’s, aural history accounts and photos. We were running short of time to get our return ferry so I need to go back, I shall be going back, it was a wealth of source material. A favourite thing was the work diary kept by Mrs Agnes Shearer during her years at the gutting 1957-1961, which listed all the names of the boats, the catch and their wages. At last I know what a gutting knife looks like something I have been wondering about, there were many gems. These fine fellows are the crew of the ‘Willie Bruce’.

Saw the Northern Lights for the first time, very exciting, as we walked back from the bonfire on the beach at Hoswick there were green lights sweeping over the horizon to the north, skimming over the silhouette of the hills. Hope for more clear nights to have another opportunity to see them again.
Bonfire and fireworks next to the sea with the sound of the waves rolling in and heat from the fire, magical.

Quite excited, I now have a copy of this film to watch, perfect while outside is dark and foggy. The director John Grierson hailed as’the father of British documentary’, when writing about the film said;
‘Drifters is about the sea and about the fishermen…….the men do their acting and the sea does its………and if you can tell me a story more plainly dramatic than the gathering of the ships for the herring season, the going out, the shooting at evening, the long drift in the night, the hauling of the nets by infinite agony of shoulder muscle in the teeth of the storm, the drive home against a head sea and the frenzy of a market in which said agonies are sold at ten shillings a thousand and iced, salted, barreled for an unwitting world……’

Reading on I also liked his description about making art and being an artist,
‘it has very little to do with nondescript enthusiasm and a great deal to do with a job of work’.
He continues,
‘in art, the gods are with the big battalions, you march on your subject with a whole regiment of energies, you surround it, you break in here, you break in there, and let loose all the shell and shrapnel you can find, out of the labour comes something, all you have to do then is seize what you want. If you have really and truly got inside, you will have plenty, of whatever it is, to choose from’

Extracts taken from the book, Grierson on Documentary, kindly lent to me by Joanne Jamieson from the Shetland film archive. This description I felt had resonance to the way I feel about my time here in Shetland, ‘marching’ on this subject of the fishing, which as it develops I see more and more as something that is at the heart of a community,a heritage of which they are proud and is important, vital in so many ways.

Drawing of the Adenia by Gemma, student at Shetland College.

Foggy, foggy, misty day….barely getting light. Yesterday I did a day workshop with some students at Shetland College, studying for their art national certificate. We worked on small scale sculptures inspired by the pelagic trawlers which have been given to the Fish Van Collection. The next few weeks have suddenly filled up with school workshops, meetings, Launch event at the museum and a trip to Whalsay, one of the islands making up this archipelago, it is at the heart of the fishing community and home to most of the pelagic fleet.

This part of the project is coming together and the logos signage and postcards are all ready, I just have to make the display cases now.

 

The wreck of the Lessops at Hagdale, Unst. She was lost in 1883 but all the crew were saved.