Quavering Tongues /
Teangannan air Crith 

New work from KNOCKvologan Studio 

Miek Zwamborn & Rutger Emmelkamp 

Music by Rufus Isabel Elliot 

The collaborative practice of Miek Zwamborn and Rutger Emmelkamp is dedicated to Knockvologan and surroundings, at Mull’s southwestern tip. Their new exhibition Quavering Tongues delves into the concept that a natural environment is a culture-generating mesh of entanglements.  

Through their use of multiple disciplines and sensory techniques, they carefully tune into the delicate intricacies of land, sea, and their inhabitants both past and present. In doing so, they reveal hidden motives that inspire speculative scenarios for a future where we acknowledge the complex and symbiotic relationships that exist between us and the natural world.

Quavering Tongues: Alongside Artists Days 

Sat 2 Sept, Sun 17 Sept, Sun 29 Oct, 10am-4pm 

Come into the gallery and spend time with Miek and Rutger as they experiment with materials, enjoy The Reading Room and find out more about how this work will evolve when it moves back to Knockvologan. Drop in throughout the day – all welcome. 

Workshop: Seaweed Cyanotypes with Juanita Schläpfer-Miller 

An Tobar Art Room, Sat 16 Sept, 2pm-5pm

Pay What You Decide
Booking essential (12 spaces max, suggested price £15) 

Join Swiss artist Juanita Schläpfer-Miller to experiment with a cyanotype technique, using light to make a variety of images with seaweed.  In this workshop, we will prepare our own cyanotype paper and learn how to prepare seaweed and other plant specimens for creating cyanotypes.

Juanita Schläpfer-Miller is an artist, exhibition curator and outreach manager at the Plant Science Center in Switzerland. She has many years of experience designing learning exhibitions in the natural sciences and has developed workshops and experiments to engage people of all ages with plant science. 

During her residency at KNOCKvologan on Mull she is working on her project Blueprint algae – Neophytes of the British Isles, an ‘appendix’ to Anna Atkin’s famous seaweed cyanotype book. There are approximately thirty new species of algae introduced by global trade and shipping since Atkins book appeared in the late 1800s, many of which are thriving due to global warming. Juanita will document all these neophytes using the same cyanotype technique and create a hand-bound art book with the original prints and a lithograph book of the images. 

Artist Talk: Photographer Tom Rankin   

6pm – 7pm, An Tobar, Sun 22 Oct  

PWYD. No booking required. 

Join American photographer Tom Rankin for an informal conversation at An Tobar, where he'll speak about his practice, his Mull piping roots, and the work he’s been developing on Mull with KNOCKvologan. 

Tom Rankin is a photographic (sometimes film) artist based in North Carolina in the US where he teaches and directs the MFA Program in Experimental and Documentary Arts at Duke University. He photographs primarily with a 8 x 10 view camera, mostly but not exclusively in black and white. One of Tom’s ancestors initiated the Rankin Piping school at Kilbreanan. During his residency Tom will focus on this family history, but also on visible intersections of traditional culture and the natural world, farming and fishing, water and land use. 

All welcome. 
 

Quavering Tongues: Closing Conversations 

7.30 - 9.30pm An Tobar Gallery, Sunday 22 October 

PWYD. Booking essential. (20 spaces max, no suggested price) 

Join the artists Miek Zwamborn and Rutger Emmelkamp and An Tobar curators for an informal evening of foraged food and nourishing conversation on the experience of the exhibition and the questions it raises.