In October/November 2001, An Lanntair co-ordinated an education programme for eleven schools in Lewis and Harris, which centred on the exhibition ‘Wish I Was Here’; a series of photographic and video portraits of poets from mixed cultural and linguistic backgrounds, made by six artists.
9 Teachers came to the gallery to hear artists Craig Mackay and Elsie Mitchell discuss their own approach to making the portraits, and the work of Iseult Timmermans, Chila Kumari Burman, David Williams and Catriona Grant. The teachers went on to explore the use of an instant snap-shot camera and medium format camera to make photographic images.
A total of 162 pupils were given a tour of the exhibition, looking in detail at the ideas behind the work and the varied photographic and video techniques used by the artists.
Writer, Domhnall Ruadh led workshops at the gallery encouraging pupils to express themselves through poetry. These focused on their likes and dislikes, their feelings about island life and their thoughts on Gaelic culture.
"Aon latha, bha mi a’ cluich geam PlayStation.
Bha an car agam anns a ‘ gheam a’ dol luath
agus bha mi a’ buannachadh.
Is ann an Greece a bha mi a’ cluich an rèis.
Bha e blàth ann an Greece
Nuairsin chuala mi fuaim
einnsean eile
Sheall mi mach air an uinneag
‘Se tractor a bh’ann a bha ‘dol seachad anns an uisg’
nuairsin smaoinich mi air cho slaodach ‘sa bha an tractor
agus cho luath ‘s a bha am PlayStation."
Original gaelic version
"One day, I was playing a game on the PlayStation
My game was fast
and I was winning
Greece was where the race was
It was warm there in Greece.
Then I heard the noise
Of another engine
I looked out of the window
It was a tractor passing in the rain
Then I thought how slow the tractor was
And how fast the PlayStation"
English Translation
Artists Iseult Timmermans, Anne Elliot, Elsie Mitchell and writer Dòmhnall Ruadh visited the schools to carry out follow-up workshops with a total of 150 pupils. These visits varied in length from 1 to 3 days and content changed from school to school. Pupils worked with the idea of self-portraiture and drew inspiration from their poems to create imagery in a broad range of photographic and digital media.
As part of An Lanntair’s ongoing commitment to promote contemporary Gaelic culture, the exhibition tours, poetry and visual art workshops were conducted primarily in Gaelic for 4 of the schools with Gaelic Medium classes.
The exhibition ‘Young Lives’ open at An Lanntair from Saturday 30th March to Saturday 20th April 2002 presented a selection of pupils' work from each school.
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