Buss o Gress/Tuft of Grass

Orkney photographer Rebecca Marr and Scottish poet Valerie Gillies have spent years among the grasses, gaining respect for them through their writing and art, each using their own languages of photography and poetry as an exchange. The work in this exhibition is part of their wider conversation about the nature of grasses, sedges and rushes. Here the focus is on using grasses. The title of the exhibition encourages us to think of grass in the hand, pulled and ready to be used.

Marr and Gillies explained “Grasses have an auld alliance with humans; they feed our animals, who reciprocate by trampling in the grass seed. Agriculture depends upon grass. The word is derived from ager, the Latin for a field: the culture of fields. Cultivated crops of grasses - cereals and rice - are the world’s most important foods. These cultivars are cousins of the wild grasses.”

This exhibition is about remembering something at the edge of our memory. Not so long ago, the grass names were widely known and there was value in the verges. It draws on the collections from Orkney Museums and Stromness Museum to tell stories of field culture, grass-made objects, carefully selected specimens for a century-old herbarium.

Other makers join the photographer and poet. In a specially commissioned piece, sculptor Frances Pelly responds to the Irish tradition of St Brigid’s Crosses made of rushes. Visual artist Joanne B Kaar shares her findings on the work of Angus MacPhee - Weaver of Grass, and filmmaker Mark Jenkins shows tradition-bearer Neil Leask weaving a Craa’s Foot.

Buss o Gress / Tuft of Grass is on display until Saturday 20 September. In collaboration with the Orkney International Science Festival (OISF), join Valerie Gillies and Rebecca Marr, for an evening of poems, images and natural history readings on Friday 5 September 6.30 - 7.30pm. Tickets are available through the OISF website.

When the grass dances, the new publication by the artists, launched by Luath Press, accompanies the exhibition. It is available to purchase in the Pier Arts Centre shop, priced at £20.