Mull hosts Scotland’s newest arts festival

Scotland’s newest arts festival sees the Isle of Mull host a weekend of radical work, featuring performance, music, art, sound installation and film screenings.

 

Daughter of Cups in the North features performance, music, art, sound installation, dance and new writing. Curated by artist Bobbi Cameron, the festival takes over An Tobar Gallery and Mull Theatre from April 29 to May 1.

 

Artists include award-winning choreographer Mele Broomes, Glasgow-based musician Quinie, Peruvian artist and writer Daniella Valz Gen, London-based artist, musician, multi-instrumentalist Hannah Catherine Jones - aka Foxy Moron - and international DJ, artist and cultural curator Sarra Wild.

 

A moving image programme will also screen works by 2021 Turner Prize nominee Evan Ifekoya, 2021 Jarman Award shortlisted artist Sophia Al Maria, British Art Show 9 featured artist Grace Ndiritu and internationally acclaimed artist Linda Stupart.

 

The festival’s invited artists are all working with and expanding on themes of ancestry, pushing the boundaries of what it means to inhabit space, connecting with spirits and breaking down barriers between worlds. Taking its title from the Tarot card of the same name Daughter of Cups in the North speaks of creativity, new possibilities, ancestry and psychic intuition.

 

"attachment_673517" "" "300"] The festival is curated by artist Bobbi Cameron and has been developed through her residency at An Tobar which has also resulted in a new sound installation at the gallery entitled without time, without distance, without mind.

 

Developed as part of artist Bobbi Cameron’s residency at An Tobar, the festival will also include a new sound installation by the artist entitled without time, without distance, without mind. Exploring spirituality and ancestry through working with reiki energy, Cameron has created a method of opening up passages to the future as well as caring for moments of the past.

 

The sound is a collage of originally composed solfeggio frequencies, archival sound and meditative guidance, a soundscape that travels and shifts throughout the gallery in its own temporal architecture. Painted fabrics hang within the space which hold and guide the sound.

 

Mele Broomes will premiere a live performance of her digital work Wrapped Up in This which was first shown as part of the Take Me Somewhere Festival 2021. Wrapped Up in This explores a journey of rebirth, of connecting with Broomes’ ancestry to ask the question is this who you want me to be?

 

"attachment_673550" "" "300"] Peruvian poet Daniella Valz Gen.

 

Peruvian poet, artist and card reader Daniella Valz Gen will showcase a series of material compositions derived from contemplations of inner and outer landscapes. Daniella’s work explores the spaces between languages, cultures and value systems with an emphasis on embodiment and ritual, through the mediums of performance, installation, conversation and text. As part of An Tobar Festival Daniella will also run a series of workshops exploring oracular practice and divination connected to the land.

 

Glasgow-based musician Quinie sings in old scots in the style of the Scottish Traveller communities that she is connected to. Her style is inspired by the traditions of Scottish Traveller singers Lizzie Higgins (1929-1993) and her mother Jeannie Robertson, 1908  to 1975. Collaging together source material, she amalgamates sean nos style melodies, childrenʼs rhyme, story poems and snippets of more traditional tunes to create a bleak and extended blur of narratives rooted in an imagined Scotland.

 

"attachment_673523" "" "300"] The festival’s invited artists are all working with and expanding on themes of ancestry, pushing the boundaries of what it means to inhabit space, connecting with spirits and breaking down barriers between worlds. Pictured: musician Hannah Catherine Jones, aka Foxy Moron.

 

London-based artist, musician, multi-instrumentalist Hannah Catherine Jones’ performance turns to celestial bodies that subvert colonial rule, Owed to Humana is mapping an escape from the all-consuming event horizon of whiteness to imagine an otherwise – an otherwise where there are new myths for the cosmos, new ways of relating with the world, and new paths to liberation.

 

Owed to Humana is the latest iteration in Jones’ ongoing body of work. The Oweds are a temporal form of self-reparation, a method of connection with ancestry through sonic ritual, using combinations of voice, theremin, stringed instruments and visuals which are sometimes orchestrated though predominantly improvised.

 

Speaking ahead of the festival artist Bobbi Cameron said: 'This festival has been launched and grown out of my residency with An Tobar Gallery. Coming out of the pandemic, I wanted to invite other artists to share this space and this platform with me. Artists who inspire and challenge my art practice, whose work has had the power to move me and to haunt me in the most brilliant ways.

 

'The festival presents artworks in the forms of films, sound installations, sculptures, music, performance and dance. There are works that offer you the space to listen deeply. There are movement works that explore journeys of rebirth. There are sounds that offer spaces of healing, sculptures that offer spaces of grounding and songs that open channels to Scottish ancestry.

 

'Across all of the works there are environments that encourage your spirit to travel, to open, to discover the unknown. This programme seeks to provide an offering for audiences who interact with it, a platform from which they can travel to explore their own sites of openness and discovery.'

 

Artistic Director of An Tobar and Mull Theatre Rebecca Atkinson-Lord said: 'We’re delighted to support Bobbi Cameron’s vision for the An Tobar Festival. We’re excited to host such a diverse programme of artists for what promises to be one of the cultural highlights not just in Mull but the wider Scottish festival calendar.'

 

NO_T12_Daughter of Cups in the North_03_Bobbi Cameron_Photo by Sam De Lange

 

Caption: The weekend festival is curated by artist Bobbi Cameron and has been developed through her residency at An Tobar which has also resulted in a new sound installation at the gallery entitled without time, without distance, without mind.

 

NO_T12_Daughter of Cups in the North_01_Linda Stupart_After the Ice

 

Caption: A series of screenings at the festival will also showcase Artists' Moving Image Screenings of work by Evan Ifekoya, Linda Stupart (pictured), Grace Ndiritu and Sophia Al Maria.

 

NO_T12_Daughter of Cups in the North_05_Hannah Catherine Jones

 

Caption: The festival’s invited artists are all working with and expanding on themes of ancestry, pushing the boundaries of what it means to inhabit space, connecting with spirits and breaking down barriers between worlds. Pictured: musician Hannah Catherine Jones, aka Foxy Moron.

 

NO_T12_Daughter of Cups in the North_06_Daniella Valz Gen

 

Caption: Taking its title from the Tarot card of the same name Daughter of Cups in the North speaks of creativity, new possibilities, ancestry and psychic intuition. Pictured: Peruvian poet Daniella Valz Gen.