EAFS Unveiled – Take an Artistic Journey into a Landscape of Adventure
Free summer event in Dumfries and Galloway invites visitors to explore hospitality, generosity and inventiveness
The Environmental Art Festival Scotland 2015 will create a landscape of adventure and wonder against the magnificent backdrop of Morton Castle and the surrounding countryside.
This year’s event, badged as EAFS Off Grid, will see the creation of temporary art installations exploring issues of crucial importance in a world of climate change and runaway consumerism.
Scotland’s international environmental art festival, held in Dumfries and Galloway on August 29 and 30, is free and will be highly distinctive because it’s about taking part in the art, rather than being a passive observer.
Robbie Coleman, a co-curator of EAFS, said: “It’s an art event in itself, not a show that one group is making for another group of people to come and stare at then go away. It’s about being a participant not an audience. We are an artist community hosting adventures in the landscape.”
Taking part will be fun. One feature will be the 100ft River of Fire Barbeque, created by Jools Cox from Castle Douglas, which will cook up fish caught in local rivers and other regional produce. A bread oven will bake loaves made from corn milled on the spot.
There will be a 30ft labyrinth, performance by Toronto dancer Bill Coleman, spherical vessels called Urchins on the loch and an Inuit kayak. All fit with the festival’s themes which include hospitality, journeys, generosity and inventiveness.
Another key aspect of EAFS Off Grid will be the five fireside conversations initiated by artists, scientists, visionaries and people who work with the land. These will let people talk about subjects of every kind, such as how people need to adapt to create a more positive future.
A further art project will see a party of riders come across the hills from Moffat bringing water from a spring at Hartfell which, according to local folklore has powers of enlightenment – and will be available to sip before the discussions.
The event’s main base will be near the castle and if the weather is fine, the evening sky will be lit by a supermoon – when the full moon looks especially large because it is at the closest point of its orbit round the earth.
Robbie said: “There will be wild camping in the area round Morton Castle, creating a ‘village’ feel for 24 hours, long enough but small enough for everyone to get to know each other. They will go out during the day, into the surrounding hills and landscapes to enjoy the artworks and then have a pleasant place to return.”
Among the artists taking part is Jim Buchanan, who is based in Dumfries and world-renowned for his labyrinths. His work has recognised therapeutic benefits and is used by hospitals in Canada and the USA. Planning is also underway for a gigantic half-mile wide earthwork labyrinth in the United States.
At EAFS Off Grid Jim will prepare a labyrinth from locally sourced natural materials which people can walk round. But much of his focus will be on the miniature, with visitors being invited to join a workshop and make their own palm-sized labyrinths.
Jim Said: “Walking a labyrinth can have a positive influence on how we feel. There is a connection between the labyrinth form, the cadence of movement with our physical and emotional state.
“My current work is exploring the labyrinth as a metaphor for life’s journey. At EAFS I am tutoring on how to make your own hand-held journey, one that can be taken away, carried as a mandala, memento or orientation map to life’s wider journey.”
These sorts of designs have a long history with archaeologists having discovered something similar in Arizona in 1933.
The sense of journey and discovery is also part of the work EAFS project being carried out by fine art photographer Jen Wilcox, maker Uula Jero, graphic designer Alan Cameron and others.
Jen, from Sandyhills, has experienced many long distance sea kayaking expeditions in remote waters round Scotland. She and her colleagues will be creating a work, which includes an orienteering course around the loch and an Inuit kayak, aimed at making people reconnect with the environment.
Jen said: “Going on expeditions teaches you a lot about life and the elements, about paring things back to what you really need.
“We want to get across a message about simplicity in a world that’s overwhelmed with material goods and where we tend to lose sight of what’s actually essential.
“When it really comes down to it you find that the essentials – which will be reflected in the artwork – are just air, heat, shelter, food and water.”
One of the plans is to chart where festival visitors have come from – they already know that someone is arriving all the way from South Korea – and then to show their movements round the landscape during the event.
EAFS is an art event which the participants will shape themselves rather than being just a set of artworks and activities laid on by the organisers.
It aims to attract visitors from all over Scotland, and beyond, and will bring together people who work with the land, scientists, artists, environmentalists, cultural thinkers, poets and performers to participate in the festival.
There will be many surprises and discoveries but one thing participants can be sure of is that there will be plenty of hospitality and a sense of togetherness.
