William Collins’ poem “An Ode on St Kilda,” from his collection “An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland,” vividly portrays the life of the past inhabitants of the remote archipelago. Inspired by this poem, I undertook my main project this year by creating a visual response through printmaking and film. After visiting St Kilda in 2019, I utilized imagery from my trip alongside archival footage from the early 1900s, aiming to capture the essence of the island and its people.

My printmaking process involved collagraph printing, where I meticulously cut and scored fourteen plates of mountboard, inking them and running them through a printing press. Expanding on this process further with film, I explored stop-motion, using each unique print as a frame to produce a dynamic effect reminiscent of old film reels. The imagery created guides viewers around the island of Hirta, revealing the everyday life and intriguing customs of its inhabitants, shaped by their beliefs and traditions.

To accompany “An Ode on St Kilda,” I created and sourced artifacts inspired by descriptions of island customs from George Seton’s “St Kilda” and Mary Harman’s “An Isle Called Hirta: A History and Culture of St Kilda to 1930.” Each artifact expands on short paragraphs from these texts, creating a broader narrative to revive details that have been lost over time. Scotland’s tradition of oral history makes preserving such stories challenging without physical objects to connect us to the past. Focusing on island beliefs and realities, I aimed to create artifacts with a tangible sense of space and presence, as if handled by the island’s inhabitants. To achieve this authenticity, I used as many raw materials as possible in their production.