Làn Thìde and An Lanntair are delighted to announce Saoirse Higgins as one of our commissioned artists. Saoirse recently completed the first part of her residency and research trip here in Lewis. 

Saoirse Higgins is an artist and researcher based between Dublin and the island of Papa Westray, or Papay (local name), in the Orkney Islands. She is interested in revealing the connections between our vision of the world we live in, our expectations for the future and the expertise and technology we use to help us with this. She explores micro-macro scales of time and ‘trickle-up’ action for change. Her work is process-driven and she often collaborates with local experts and island communities. Saoirse works with a mix of time-lapse and real-time video, 360 VR, audio field recordings, performance and DIY measuring and mapping tools and objects. Recent collaborations have been with – Scottish Government Island team, the Icelandic Glaciological Society, British Science Association, Antarctica Heritage Trust, North Isles Landscape Partnership, Papay Development Trust and Centre for Island Technologies, Herriot Watt. 

 Saoirse says, “This Climate Beacon project continues my exploration of the sea from an island view- a ‘terrestrial Jacque Cousteau’ viewpoint. I am concerned about the scale and complexity of the seas changing ecosystem and how we try and connect with it and deal with this now for the future. For this project I have started a ‘collaboratory’ between two islands – Papay and Lewis  – exploring and contrasting human and non-human objects and species that ‘raft’ in and out above, below, and on the surface of the sea from far away other lands landing on the present and future shores of islands.”

Please keep an eye out for more updates from Saoirse as her project continues to develop.