Mak9 at Art Arcadia, first days.

Mak9, a collective of artists interested in landscape and materiality, have arrived in Pietrafitta to begin their residency here as part of the Riverbero project, invited by Art Arcadia and supported by the University of Ulster Festival of Art and Design. There are four of us involved in this project- Heather Dornan Wilson, Alice Clark, Gail Mahon and myself, Stuart Cairns, Heather and I arrived first. My practice is concerned with materiality, the landscape, walking and collecting, all of which I document with both my iPhone camera and my digital camera. So intitially I have begun to investigate the village and surrounding area with short walks, collecting the occasional object, talking photos and sharing them on social media. I use cameras as a tool to train my eye and tune into the areas I find myself in. I’be been fascinated by the textures, marks and forms I’ve found, two forms especially have been collected- flattened shotgun cartridges on the rocky roads and the local walnut shells and husks.

Here are a few of my observations from the first few days,

Stuart.