Banner Project for Perth Museum
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This banner was commissioned for the opening of the new Perth Museum and is presented in the form of a quilt, illustrating themes of landscape, migration and displacement.
The quilt depicts an aerial view of Amulree, Scotland and Amulree, Canada. The former reflects the organic shaping of land by its inhabitants over time; the latter a more rectilinear, rationalized plot-system often used by European settlers. Various people are represented on the top of the quilt as silhouettes in reverse appliqué—physically cut out and re-stitched as more transparent forms on the bottom of the quilt in a gesture to the precarity of life in transience, migration, dis- and re-location.
In 1827 the Canadian land was signed over to the British Government by numerous local Indigenous Peoples as part of the Huron Tract Purchase Treaty 29. Part of the treaty text is seen on the back of the quilt and on the front as a reverse trace – a reminder that this treaty displaced the original inhabitants of the land while facilitating its settlement.
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The quilt is made from reclaimed textiles, deadstock fabric, and recycled wadding.
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Photos by Jen Martin
BBC Now & Next Short Film Commission
Co-created with Lillian Ross-Millard
Glas & Gorm
(Short puppet animation, 4 minutes 44 seconds 2020)
Co-directed by Lillian Ross-Millard & Emily Smit-Dicks.
Commissioned by Lux Scotland in partnership with BBC Arts as part of the Now & Next commissioning scheme.
Glas and Gorm, a speculative-fiction puppet film portraying a post-human, post-apocalyptic Scotland, which has become overgrown with flora. Humans have disappeared and the natural world has taken over, growing through and around the infrastructure left behind. Glimpses of a past human life are seen behind the organic materials, hinting at the catastrophic actions that resulted in this new world. Out of the decay brought on by the anthropocene, a new green civilisation has emerged. Plants have become conscious and move throughout this new space taking over to create a new natural domain. This vision is brought to life with puppetry and vividly designed sets.