It took until almost March 2009 to get a clear response from the Isle of Eigg, which as it turned out, was a resounding Yes. I was delighted and really excited about getting there and making the work.
It turned out that everyone on the island wanted the residency to go a ahead and they really liked my ideas, which was a relief and incredibly reaffirming. The issue had been that no one really wanted to supervise it or take responsibility, which is a common problem in approaching any institutional body. I made arrangements with the head of the History Society that she would be my point of contact and that the Trust secretary would act as liaison if needed. I would be ultimately responsible, and the matter was cleared up within a week. I asked for all of this in writing and (eventually) the residency was given the complete go ahead for six weeks over this summer, 2009. Hurrah! It would give me the complete freedom to undertake the residency in whatever way I wanted.
In the mean time I was by no means idle. The performance for the dead, that had somehow burrowed into my mind as "The Battle for Eigg", was developing. I started to create posters to represent the characters from the play as if advertising what audiences had missed, retrospectively. Then I began creating posters for fantastical future re-enactments of the play. One involved each character in the form of hot air balloons, battling each other high over the Isle of Eigg. Then the characters began to change, taking on more of the issues that had arisen in conversation with islanders about tourism, immigration and cultural appropriation, and the costumes changed to reflect this.
