Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Twitter
I have been using drawing since early 2021 to investigate and articulate the subject of pain in relation to the Viking Energy Wind Farm (VEWF) in Shetland, United Kingdom. The drawings are arranged by year from when I began working on the project in March 2021.
The landscape in Shetland is in a constant state of injury, wounding and destruction as a result of the construction of this wind farm. Through these drawings I am exploring the wind farm construction as a metaphor for the body in pain, scarring, and wounding, both physically and emotionally.
I am interested in photographs and drone footage that is taken by other people because I can't get out as often as I'd like to take photographs. Please contact me if you would be interested to share your photos with me and would consent to me drawing on them. I will credit anyone whose photographs I use.
I have taken most of the photographs myself, and credit those taken by others.
2023
I created the drawings in the first section below in 2023, the year when the installation of all 103 turbines was completed.
The turbines are massive, and photographs don't convey their disproportionate scale in relation to the Shetland landscape. There are approximately 800 km of cables which transport the electricity from the different turbine arrays to the wind farm substation at Upper Kergord. Additionally there will be many miles of cables, both underground and above ground, to take power from Kergord to the substation in Lerwick so a bit of the energy can be used for Shetland. There will also be cables to connect the other wind farms proposed onshore and offshore. There is a subsea cable from Shetland to Caithness, which already has required consent for additional rock to be added. See this Some Sobering Facts, for more information.
2021
I created the drawings in the Gallery below in 2021. Some of these were exhibited in the simultaneous exhibitions in Shetland and Switzerland, Hidden Flowers Bloom Beautifully. I thought I would be adding drawings, or films on a regular basis, but unfortunately I have not done so as regularly as I had originally anticipated. I have been sidetracked by the range of complex issues linked to the wind farm.
