
Ursula Troche
'Living on the Solway, a firth that is shared between England and Scotland, as well as being part of the Irish Sea, I am a 'double migrant', having moved up here from London where I had lived 27 years. I moved there from Germany, where I grew up, between the Berlin Wall and the North Sea. The sea and borders, therefore, form an integral part of my writing and my artwork. I am also part of an artist duo called ArtCouple with Dr. Simon Bradley, and we make art about issues regarding borderlands, and other 'terrain vagues'. We have contributed to the Wavescape Conference in Split, Croatia, before lockdown, and have recently made a presentation and a film for the Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography about post-industrial slag near the coast.'
DUMFRIESLAND
Drawn to Dumfries, I noticed how it resonates with 'Friesland' ('Frisia' in English), the coastal population of Germany, and much of the Netherlands and Denmark. Some sources argue that Dumfries, in fact, has origins as a Frisian settlement, so the name association is no coincidence. This film is the start of my project exploring our common origins across the sea, and a journey - all around Scotland, crossing between Orkney and Shetland, then across the North Sea - which leads from here to there, and back again. The project will also highlight climate concerns affecting our coastlines, especially intertidal waters. This film starts with me standing on the Embankment by the River Nith, with a skein of wool to lay symbolic Iines in a sculpture I found by the water. As I turn the sculpture, my wool gets tangled, enacting entangled connections between us.
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'Stitching to Connect'