Projects → Wild Land

WILD LAND

2022 -

Exploring the fragility of peatland in the Shetland landscape

Shetland is a far-flung string of islands, but the large areas of peatland found here are incredibly important. As well as supporting a diverse range of wildlife, regulating water flow and purifying water, peatbogs are a hugely important carbon store. Healthy blanket bog sequesters carbon - whereas dried out, exposed and damaged peatlands release carbon at a terrifyingly fast rate.

In Shetland, past human activity including draining and over-grazing has led to erosion, but the current construction of a huge onshore windfarm is a threat on a whole new scale. During 2020, invasive groundwork began across a vast area of Shetland. New roads were laid to allow machinery to access the land and rip out huge chucks of peatland, to be filled with concrete for wind-turbine bases. This kind of damage not only affects particular areas, but accelerates the degradation of the whole structure. What was once a rare wilderness has now in some parts become an industrial landscape, and all for the sake of a green energy project.

My work investigates the land-surface of peatland using ink on translucent paper. Intricate networks of lochs and burns run through the blanket bog, creating many interconnected lines and patterns. In these drawings, I aim to reframe blanket bog as a complex and mysterious ecosystem in-itself, one that we are only just starting to understand. Today there should be a huge urgency to protect peatland - not treat it as a resource to be exploited.

EXHIBITION