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Placelore
Elaine is a visual and socially engaged art practitioner. Her work explores lived experiences within communities and our relationships to place by gathering stories and folklore, both old and new.  She seeks to galvanise interactions, communication and conversation through creative activity. Drawing is integral to Elaine’s visual art practice, often responding to her surroundings. She is a freelance practitioner, painter and screenprinter who is currently in her last year of an MA in Art and Social Practice, UHI Shetland College.

This exhibition is made up of Mono Screenprints that are based on my current early explorations of a selection of stories and folklore from specific places which could also be termed as placelore. Each of the prints reflect an element of a story, place or experience – from illustrations to ariel views of the locations they relate to.  The compositions form a series but they are all individually handpainted and transferred to the paper using screenprinting techniques. This process creates a flow, enabling me to respond creatively to the stories and places intuitively. Each piece is unique and evolving, allowing for a reflexive and reflective approach.

The placelore on show relates to the shipwrecks Borgin Vagur, which ran aground off Lower Shader, Isle of Lewis, in the 1980s near to where I live, and to the Maju, a coal carrying iron ship which was lost with all hands off Barvas in 1874. Pieces of the coal have been found in an inlet on the coast, some of which have been collected and can be found sitting in a fireplace in a barn, unused.  The work relating to Reef is based on the story of the attempted kidnapping of Domnhall Cam’s daughter which I heard while camping at Reef by a peat fire. ‘Clach Mor’ is an old stone that marks the path of the sun to the Summer Solstice when viewed from my village, Upper Shader. The Moon rises opposite in line with the village. Other landscape based images are from my journeys by boat around St Kilda, Harris and form part of early explorations into responding creatively the placelore I learned of in these areas at the time. More information (continually updated) can be accessed via the QR code.

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