Mairi Gillies. image credit: Jim Hope
Mairi Gillies’ exhibition ‘Uaim an Òir’ is in An Lanntair’s gallery until 5th July.
Join artist Mairi Gillies and piper Decker Forrest in conversation, for insights and sounds exploring the relationships between place, people, piping, and plants based on the multiple versions of the story Uamh an Òr (The Cave of Gold).
Màiri Gillies is a Gaelic visual artist. In Màiri’s arts practice Gàidhlig forms a key part of the aperture through which she experiences the world. Màiri is interested in the overlapping layers through time of peoples, language, material cultures, relationships with the environment and how these connect and relate to one another.
Dr J. Decker Forrest is the Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Gaelic and Traditional Music Degree at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye. A well-known, award-winning piper, originally from San Diego, California, Decker researches the development of bagpipe music, particularly in relation to ethnology, and has published numerous articles in Piping Today and in other journals over the years. He received a PhD from St Andrews University and the RSAMD in 2009 for a thesis and audio recordings of his playing he submitted which explored the change and performance-practice of ceòl beag (marches, jigs reels, etc.) between 1819 and 1966.