Stones of Destiny
Argyrotype print In the washing out tray - Callanish Stones, 2022.
It is believed that stones hold power – they have a resonance which abides through time. This was the premise I started with when I devised my Stone Stories project. Feeling the pull of the Callanish Stones I visited in 2018, I knew I had to return to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. That I found an artist residency so close by, was an opportunity too good to miss. I knew that these ancient Neolithic stones would lead me into an artistic exploration of time, place and vibrational resonance.
Three days into my artist residency at the Island Darkroom at Achmore and already the stones are whispering their stories to me. In order to prepare for this residency, I spent the past two weeks on a Hebridean Hopscotch trip taking photographs as I travelled from Barra in the south to the Isle of Lewis up north.
My eyes were drawn to the rocky landscapes and old abandoned stone buildings which hold the memory of human habitation. Together these rocks and stones are my starting point for visually expressing their stories through argyrotype prints and black and white photographs.
In the darkroom the stones are exposed, disappear and reappear again in the developing tray. Outside I am using sunlight to expose the distinctive brown argyrotype prints. Some of these prints I have made on my flood marked papers from the 2017 floods, repurposed collages unpicked and with the stitching marks still showing.
There are layers of stories embedded into one piece of paper. Stone houses whose occupants were dispossessed from their land during the island clearances, others stories of people dispossessed of their homes which were destroyed during the recent floods in the northern rivers of New South Wales.
In the quiet of the evening when I look out over the hills and lochs from my little island bothy, I have been reading a book called The Taking of the Stone of Destiny. It’s a daring-do true story of one man’s idea to bring the Stone of Scone back to Scotland. This is the “coronation stone” which has been fitted into a specially designed chair at Westminster Abbey since the time of Edward I who stole it during his invasion of Scotland and took it to England in 1296.
All the subsequent monarchs have been crowned sitting on that chair. The daring young idealist formed a small group of compatriots and stole it away on Christmas Day, 1950. It was later found, taken back to Westminster and resided there until 1996 when the British Prime Minister, John Major decreed that it should be returned to Scotland. It is now housed at Edinburgh Castle, with the provision that it be “lent” to Westminster for future royal coronations.
I think of this stone of power and resonance which the Scottish people believe Is a symbol of their independence of thought and being. It was the stone purportedly upon which the High Kings of Tara pledged their oath and was brought to Scotland from Ireland by Fergus Mór mac Eirc around 498 AD.
I like to think that the stones I am making art about have something of that resonance, imparting all the mystery of themselves in the animate landscape.
Abandoned stone houses, Outer Hebrides, 2022.
This project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
