DISCOVER THE DEEP COMMUNITY STITCH ARTWORK

Ann Salter – Ann started sewing at the age of 10 and through the years has enjoyed many creative activities, including painting, weaving, lacemaking and basketry. She especially likes to eco print fabric and enhance its beauty with slow stitch embroidery, even spinning wool from her own flock of sheep. Textiles have featured more prominently in her more recent work and this project inspired me to highlight the impact of plastics and pollution in our beautiful ocean.

Mhairi McKechnie – To Mhairi, the sea and ocean, placid or stormy, are a wonder! Who does not feel emotion of some kind when looking out to sea? She thinks we need to be reminded of how little is known about life in the ocean…from the surface to the depths. Asking questions like what vital sources have we already lost, are still losing through overfishing, pollution and the way we treat our planet? She wanted to use silk georgette as a “floaty” fabric base, with the colourful printed silk “bodies” to represent dying flora and fauna. She has used sand from a beach local to her; formed from the broken skeletons of ancient corals. The rope fibres are from debris washed up on the same beach.

Sami McBride – Life Beneath the Waves – Sami has always been fascinated by life beneath the waves, pouring over pictures of sea creatures in books as a child. As there’s still such a lot we don’t know or understand about the sea, Sami hopes that we can learn to live alongside this great beauty of nature before we destroy it. To create their piece, Sami used the computer software FireAlpaca, cresting a graduated blue background which was printed onto bamboo material. Sami wanted to show the deeper bioluminescent animals against the deep dark sea and then the more colourful plants and sea creatures as it neared the surface. The plants and creatures have been designed using a mixed media approach of fabric paint, material, wool and beads with some glow in the dark paint to enhance the bioluminescence.

Yvonne Gerrard – Yvonne used bamboo fabric, embroidery thread wool and tape to create Beauty and the Beast. The ocean and the creatures are the beauty, with humans and their mess representing the Beast.

Bryony Anderson – Pelagic foramnifera and other fossils – Bryony has used printed fabric bamboo, organza, cotton perle, cotton embroidery floss, various beads both new and repurposed to create her installation which includes fabric printed with original thin section images from the Challenger Expedition Report, with beads sewn into this to bring it some life. An Earth scientist by background, Bryony was inspired by the Challenger Expedition and how tiny organisms can be indicators of climate change. The Challenger Expedition laid down a baseline for ocean study, and in the 150 years since, the calcium carbonate shells of all species of foramnifera have been becoming thinner. This has been shown to be due to increased carbon in the atmosphere, which in turn raises ocean acidity.

Bryony created this piece to highlight initially her interest in the simplicity and beauty of how scientific specimens are labelled, with the issue of climate change, atmospheric carbon increase and its threat to the oceans and wildlife explored with a reducing thread thickness, change in thread colour and an increasing transparency of print on the thin sections.

Hazel Raee – Ocean Acidification – Hazel has spent a third of her life living close to the sea. This piece of work was informed by the process known as Ocean Acidification. Since the Industrial Revolution, the ocean has become more acidic. This rapid alteration is placing immense stress on marine organisms, with the situation projected to worsen. This is particularly problematic for creatures with fragile carbonate shells or skeletons, as even small changes in ocean acidity can weaken their structures. Human activities, such as fossil fuel combustion, have disrupted the natural process of carbon exchange between the atmosphere and ocean. Hazel’s work on display highlights the impacts of ocean acidification. .

Hyeran Yang – Hyeran is a student at the University of the Highlands and Islands, currently studying printmaking and illustration. She has a background in drawing. Her art is inspired by the deep sea and its creatures, particularly the lantern fish, hydrothermal vents that have many resources for the deep-sea environment, and the barrel-eye fish that watches over it. She has incorporated these elements into her work, creating pieces that are both beautiful and meaningful.