Description

Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: Isle of Skye, Scotland (2014) explores crofting, traditional Scottish highlands subsistence farming, and other forms of local food production in the Isle of Skye, Scotland. It was developed during a residency with Atlas Arts and centred around workshops and picnics in an inflatable structure at Kilmuir Primary School, in Skye’s last Gaelic parish, to engage with the kids and learn about local food in Skye.

Through the mapping workshops the students shared traditional knowledge and crofting recipes I in turn cooked these recipes and hosted a series of picnic events in an inflatable structure. As we ate and discussed the food I mapped the conversation onto the flooring of the inflatable, creating a giant mapping about crofting and local food, documenting the dialogue and the knowledge they had shared with me. We discussed their local relationship to food production, revealing the strong connection the students had to the land through crofting and foraging for local food.

Many recipes had ingredients that would have been straight from the croft or foraged from the local landscape. For example, the Crofter’s Pie was a direct way to talk about local crofting food, as all the ingredients would have traditionally been sourced from the croft. This directed the conversation to which of the ingredients the kids grew on the croft today as an avenue to discuss contemporary crofting practices and food culture in Skye.

This picnic was the second in the Temporary Spaces, Edible Places series exploring food and space in various locations.

Commissioned by Atlas Arts, Isle of Skye, Scotland