EARTHBOUND ORKNEY

This Parliament of Orcadian Earths

Individual representatives, lines link constituencies.

These Earths manifesting themselves through a sphere and a cube,

using communication of form as a form of communication.

A cube raw, entangled with other beings from place.

Polished spheres revealing their inner life

Thirteen natural earths,

borrowed where their faces meet sea and sky.

Laid down by ice, 12,000 years.

Accruing and decaying

in constant Flow

beneath their green skin

One interloper then, anthropogenic earth, 5,000 years old,

representing earth given form through human hands.

Containers for people, food and ashes,

buildings round on the outside, rectilinear within.

Knowing then the difference between inner and outer lives,

seeing from the inside and from the outside

These earths have no words, speaking in other ways.

In work, hands absorbed clay, clay absorbed hands.

In life, bodies built of minerals, flowing through plants and cattle.

We are built of earth, borrowed from earth, earth in a different form.

In death to return, a human circular ecology of form

Are our words then, earth’s words?

The Parliament of Earths installation can be seen at the A Fragile Correspondence exhibition at the V&A Dundee until Spring 2025.

Through 2024, EBUKI was delighted to deliver a programme of events exploring the heritage, culture, science and environmental relevance of the natural clay subsoils of the Orcadian archipelago. Earthbound Orkney included three exhibitions, five public talks, four training workshops and a book.

THE HERITAGE

Some of the most mysterious things found in excavations of the first homes on Orkney are small balls of clay, discovered on at least eight sites and about 5,000 years old. Sometimes single balls, sometimes dozens, some rough and lumpy, others smoothly spherical. Who made them and why is unclear. While they are unusual in Scotland, similar things have been made around the world in other cultures and times. The exhibition at Maeshowe and Kirkwall displayed 16 Neolithic clay balls found at three Neolithic sites on Orkney.

What is clear is that a relationship to earth was key to the Neolithic culture on Orkney. Farming relied on knowledge of the fertility and drainage of earth, while pottery required an understanding of the physical chemistry of different clays, their plasticity and response to heat. But earth was also fundamental to Neolithic construction; mortar and cores in stone walls, plasters and pigments, bedding and sealants, and above all beautiful beaten clay floors. It was a tradition of earth construction that lasted in Orkney until the late 19th Century.

THE EARTHS

This exhibition presents an exploration of the clay earths that were deposited on Orkney during the last Ice Age and were used in traditional craft and construction. From the large deposits of gold and red clay to the smaller amounts of exotic blues, greens, whites and blacks found in special locations. Some are stony, sandy or silty, while others are oily and organic, influenced by peat that built up on top.

Thirteen different locations on three islands are represented here by their earths, in raw form rammed into cubes, and as polished spheres. Sourcing and making these contemporary artefacts is part of a rich dialogue with Place and Past though Orkney’s earths and it’s heritage community. It explores a human connection through making that is 5,500 years old, embedded in muscles, memories and landscape. But it also signals a re-connection with natural and local materials that is part of our response to the Climate and Nature Emergency.

THE BOOK

A book provides lots of background information on the project, Orkneys earth building culture, the Neolithic clay balls and the art works made for the exhibition.

ISBN 9780955058011.

You can buy a copy online at Earthbound Orkney - The Orcadian Bookshop.

Buy the book!

TALKS AND PODCASTS

You can listen to a range of recorded talks about the project online:

SUPPORT

Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and supported by Orkney Museum, University of Highlands & Islands, National Museums of Scotland, Orkney College, Ness of Brodgar Trust, Orkney Science Festival, Orkney Japan Association and many others, the project was delivered with Scottish earth experts Tom Morton of Arc Architects and Becky little of Rebearth.

Earthbound Orkney