“Looking back on my time on North Uist it is difficult to describe the quality of the air, the views, the colours, the intensity of atmosphere which fascinated me so. It is a bit like having the insides of your eyes washed out, the colours taken away, then restored with a new brilliance. I felt I could breathe on North Uist. The many lochans pooling in the landscape reflect the immense skies. Herons fly, swans gather.
I wanted to meet an artist who lives and works in this stupendously beautiful, but wild and remote place.
Laura Donkers’ entry in the little book ‘made in the outer Hebrides, a cultural guide’ ( www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk & www.cne-siar.gove.uk Arts & Culture pages) was very interesting, and probably resonated most strongly with my own practice.
I telephoned her from my tent and we met one windy morning in her warm kitchen. What follows is from my notes…
Laura is from London; she’s lived on North Uist for 30 years. She said it’s tough to be an artist there; one’s practice as an artist implies exhibiting, but opportunities to exhibit on the Islands are very limited. It is tricky to have a contemporary art practice. She did the MFA at Dundee, where she met lots of artists. There are many artists on the Uists, too.
Recently provision for the arts has been decimated, the roles of arts officers have been severely curtailed. She is a member of Mat Roberts Arts (based in London) so she can inform herself about opportunities in the SE.
To find a way to survive as an artist, and to keep her practice alive and thriving, Laura has developed community projects. This is a good way to obtain generous funding. She is currently working on a climate change/challenge project with local organisations, in an environmental project which encourages people to grow (their own?) food.
This project is based on the South Islands, and involves people setting up allotments. There is input from Kew Gardens Grow Wild project, involving an ex-MOD brown field site, where the allotments are built on raised beds.
Being an artist on Uist means embracing interdisciplinary practice; and accepting that not all the needs of one’s life as an artist will be met. It is very expensive to send work away for exhibitions.
A group of artist recently set up a collective on the back of a successful group exhibition – around 12 artists; they are now involved with a group in Germany (Angermunde) and they are engaging in exchanges with this group. Funding for this has come from the local college and wind farm.
There are significant artists in this group, with good track records.
On the Islands some people have a perception that knowledge has to come from outside but in fact the knowledge is already here. Laura said” People have to be artisst to live here – continually responding to the climate, the conditions – that requires creativity.
…The difficulty is that people who are doing/making and organisations who are there representing the community…often the two don’t meet – Artists are the bridge over the divide – a way to come together.
Artist need to be light on their feet – they can’t settle – the environment keeps you sufficiently unsettled.
Local people are very adaptable. Laura’s husband who is a Vet sometimes has to perform a Caesarian section on a cow in a field. His assistant might be a child, who carries the generational knowledge of what to do – they know exactly how to connect with what they’re seeing – and have a calmness, similar to the response of indigenous peoples. This can be how an artist responds too, with experienced knowing which does not come from a book.
Laura is currently doing a practice-led Ph.D (Dundee) about the embodied knowledge of the community in Uist. Interests include the equality of life (humans don’t dominate), and the sense of space, openness engendered by the sheer physical force of the landscape.
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