Aug 13, 2023

Orasaigh: exhibition opens

After eighteen months, the first exhibition of the Orasaigh collaboration was opened at Cnoc Soilleir in South Uist on Friday

The exhibition compromises selected excerpts from Steve Ely's text alongside some photography from the project that interprets and compliments the text.

and there, beyond the precarious, hop-across causeway, the storm-ripped ruin of An Doirlinn and the crab boats’ wedge of white van landing—twin-papped, raven-crested Orasaigh stands on its strand before me

"From halfway across the machair—between the abandoned

burial ground and the gutted net station—

the island rises from the swell like Surt.

I can feel the shush and thump of ocean,

breathe the beach’s warm kelp breeze.

From halfway across the machair—between the abandoned burial ground and the gutted net station— the island rises from the swell like Surt. I can feel the shush and thump of ocean, breathe the beach’s warm kelp breeze.

Patrolling herring gulls monitor my approach

and gannets plunge from the sky’s high tower—

then the wind’s in my face on the low dunes’ ridge,

and there, beyond the precarious, hop-across causeway,

the storm-ripped ruin of An Doirlinn and the crab boats’

wedge of white van landing—twin-papped, raven-crested

Orasaigh stands on its strand before me.

The exhibition runs until September 28th at Cnoc Soilleir (open Monday to Friday) with the larger exhibition at Taigh Chearsabhagh beginning in November. Broken Sleep Books will be publishing the book containing the full text and the widest selection of photography in 2024.