Shifting Sands
2020
Shifting Sands documents the vibrant matter fundamental to the machair’s existence, one of the rarest and unique eco-systems in Europe. Machair, Gaelic
for ‘fertile low lying grassy plain’ is a bio-diverse, coastal grassland, formed over
millennia by calcareous sand carried by the sea, eroded from dunes and blown inland by
powerful winds.
Lewisian Gneiss, Calcareous Sand, Kelp, Vegetation and Wetland are each depicted through an individual photogram, accurately communicating their textures and scale. To document Lewisian Gneiss, the rock itself acted as the negative, sculpting light sensitive paper into the rock’s textures, exposing the textured paper to light at an angle, and developing the photogram in the darkroom.
The work was motivated by the respect that Drummie feels towards the machair’s extraordinary assemblage of matter, which when isolated could appear ordinary to some.
Lewisian Gneiss, Calcareous Sand, Kelp, Vegetation and Wetland are each depicted through an individual photogram, accurately communicating their textures and scale. To document Lewisian Gneiss, the rock itself acted as the negative, sculpting light sensitive paper into the rock’s textures, exposing the textured paper to light at an angle, and developing the photogram in the darkroom.
The work was motivated by the respect that Drummie feels towards the machair’s extraordinary assemblage of matter, which when isolated could appear ordinary to some.