Cairngorm - Reading a Landscape

For the past four years, CairnGorm Mountain Trust has been working to develop an artist-led initiative at the heart of the Cairngorms.

Cairngorm - Reading a Landscape looks at the intrusion into the majestic landscape of the Cairngorms formed by the ski facilities at Cairngorm Mountain and how a sympathetic approach by artists to the environment can be developed to address this.

Phase 1 of the project is now complete and Arthur Watson’s creative artwork - of which there are six pieces in Phase One - reflects his deep personal interest in language, history, Gaelic and Scottish folklore and will become the interior focal points within the ticketing area of the funicular’s Base Station. The installation consists of ‘Snow Words: Hollow of the Snow’, Coire an t-Sneachda, Cairn Gorm, and ‘Hidden Corries’.

On the gable wall of the lower funicular station concourse a circular chiaroscuro woodcut of Coire an t-Sneachda, in winter has been installed.  This is surrounded by concentric rings of words laser cut from birch ply.

The words are formed from text which is a glossary for terms for conditions of snow and ice in Scots, Gaelic, and travellers’ cant.

A further five pieces ‘Hidden Corries’ a series of five circular images of corries across the Cairngorm plateau, which are inaccessible to the casual visitor, photographed over the seasons, also encircled by layers of text, also help to prepare the visitor for the mountain landscape and its variation in location and seasons.

Three pieces are installed on the funicular platform, one on the entrance stair and one on the exit stair.

Phase 2

Phase 2 will be built next year and consists of a reworking of the existing 'all abilities path' which runs next to the car park which will link together two new works by Will Maclean and Lei Cox.  The path, which will be slightly lower than the ground on either side and retained by drystone walls, will flow across the raised ground above the car park replicating the swirls and eddies of glacial and river flows.  The combination of dry stone dykes with stone slab seating recalls early stone structures in St Kilda and Orkney as well as local walling.

Several structures will be placed along the path which will give visitors the opportunity to shelter from the wind, read short texts, listen to soundtracks, and engage in a video work.  Arthur is overseeing this project particularly the structure of the path which links the external works together, with input from five other artists, Will Maclean, Lei Cox, Andy Rice, Fergus Purdie, and Paul Nesbitt.

The project has been made possible with the help of a contribution of £220,000 from National Lottery funds in partnership with a number of bodies, including Scottish Natural Heritage, The Highland Council, MBSE, Hi-Arts, and the Cairngorms National Park Authority.