For Artful Migration 2021-2022, environmental video artist and filmmaker John Wallace created work based on the behaviour of the ospreys at Kelton Mains, Threave Nature Reserve (part of NTS Threave Garden & Estate). Based in Annandale, in the east of the region, he explored the lives of these rare birds of prey while also looking at the wider ecosystem that supported them, as well as their impact on people.

The 2020 residency built on a successful pilot that had taken place at WWT Caerlaverock in 2017–18, when Angela Alexander-Lloyd created work inspired by the annual migration of whooper swans from Iceland to the Solway Firth.

Artful Migration was established to honour the legacy of Ginnie Wollaston’s uncle George Clark and his brother John Clark, a keen artist who lived for many years in Gatehouse of Fleet. Ginnie wanted to give this legacy to Dumfries and Galloway in memory of both uncles, enabling artists to create work inspired by the unique environment and migratory birds associated with the region.

Angela’s video projection onto ice entitled Faileas more than met the challenge of the brief –and revealed to all of us the power that art has to encompass complex questions but to present them differently so that everyone can understand or have their own interpretation of the work. Faileas projected the figure of a woman onto block of ice in which feathers from the whooper swans were embedded. The female figure on a repeating loop bent down to drink a cup of dark molasses – a substance akin to oil consumption with a passive face of continual consumption – chilling!

The sound installation took the participant around the site of Caerlaverock down to the hide on the marshes to learn about the changes local farmers, business men and women and MPs had noticed that climate change had brought to the area.It was obvious that most had witnessed these changes and with Caerlaverock being at sea level the rise of temperature that causes the icebergs to melt and sea levels rise – there is a risk of flooding! We can stop this behaviour but do we have the political will to do something serious to change this? This residency was crucial to raise awareness of these issues, gather good PR for this partnership and for the potential powerful statements through art making that can help us to change our behaviour of consumption.

We will be looking for a three year funding support this project into the future in partnership with University of Glasgow and other international partnerships.

https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/caerlaverock/

http://www.weareupland.com/projects/artful-migration-artist-residency/blog