Mangurstadh: Magnus's Steading
Documentation of a video installation by Elsie Mitchell, in an exhibition at An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Mapping Mangurstadh
(video still from Croft 5 timelapse)
Digital video and photographs displayed as silent 5 minute loops, on 10 televisions recording the crofting activity, flora, fauna and landscapes within the village of Mangurstadh and surrounding common grazings filmed between 2010 – 12 in all seasons.
The central television (top row) is a time-lapse of 2 years of crofting activity on the 5 Mangersta fields as crops - haylidge, turnips and potatoes - are grown and harvested and the fields are used at various points in the year for lambing, calving and for grazing by Aberdeen Angus Cattle, Hebridean and Blackface sheep and Saddleback pigs.
The screens to either side on the top row take the viewer along the coastal heath, beaches and clifftops on the coastal edge of Mangersta Common Grazings, the screens on the bottom row depict the village fields and the inner moorland, peatland, lochs and hills which form the interior of Mangersta Common Grazings. Mangersta Common Grazings has been managed by crofters for many years to support biodiversity with grazing regimes designed to maintain habitats for birds, insects, flowers and wildlife as prescribed by agri environmental schemes. Included within the film and photographic imagery are signs of ancient archaeology, prehistoric farms and field systems, and human settlements and agricultural activity from post-medieval times to 2012.
Documentation of a video installation by Elsie Mitchell, in an exhibition at An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
Mapping Mangurstadh
(video still from Croft 5 timelapse)
Digital video and photographs displayed as silent 5 minute loops, on 10 televisions recording the crofting activity, flora, fauna and landscapes within the village of Mangurstadh and surrounding common grazings filmed between 2010 – 12 in all seasons.
The central television (top row) is a time-lapse of 2 years of crofting activity on the 5 Mangersta fields as crops - haylidge, turnips and potatoes - are grown and harvested and the fields are used at various points in the year for lambing, calving and for grazing by Aberdeen Angus Cattle, Hebridean and Blackface sheep and Saddleback pigs.
The screens to either side on the top row take the viewer along the coastal heath, beaches and clifftops on the coastal edge of Mangersta Common Grazings, the screens on the bottom row depict the village fields and the inner moorland, peatland, lochs and hills which form the interior of Mangersta Common Grazings. Mangersta Common Grazings has been managed by crofters for many years to support biodiversity with grazing regimes designed to maintain habitats for birds, insects, flowers and wildlife as prescribed by agri environmental schemes. Included within the film and photographic imagery are signs of ancient archaeology, prehistoric farms and field systems, and human settlements and agricultural activity from post-medieval times to 2012.