THIR A MUIGH
(OUTER LAND)

John Hodkinson

It's all one world, that great wild thing writhing away outside the window. This separation lrom nature (through the window) is tragic. because we really are part of it, and if only we can be made to leel it, there is nothing more exhilarating than experiencing directly that inside knowledge.

Thir a Muigh (Outer Land)

Landscape has a metaphoric aspect. It always stands for something. It may be the process of nature, the shadow of history or perhaps an attitude to life, or a set of beliefs. It is culture in the very broadest sense. Apache Indians named their landscape in great detail, and knew it lrom the inside OUT as a living thing, of which they were a part . . . on equal terms.

Comhanaich an Latha(Daybreak)

The most exciting. enticing landscape is that which is at the edge of things. At the edge of perception - when the weather is bad. or where there is a sense of threat, or at the edges of understanding where time is deep. or where knowledge is thin.

Bruadal Dubh (Dark Vision)

The three outer isles of the Flannan group:
Brona Ceit. Roareim and Eilean a Ghobha were always referred to in Bernera as "An Tir a Muigh": The Outer Land.

These works mosdy have their origins in visits to the island of Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides during the last three years. Incredible landscapes, bursting with light. Rainbow-chunks, hanging in the air like visions. Mists and clouds draping hills and mountains like veils, revealing the landscape in pieces as though the weather was confiding, telling you secrets. At a general glance. colours are deep, dark, fugitive.

A closer look reveals colours of parts so fierce that your eyeballs sweat. This land bears traces of its occupants, but like the songs of the whales which I heard out in the Loch, these traces come from everywhere in general. and nowhere in particular.

Part of the excitement of these visits for me is that the landscape is simultaneously familiar and strange. Despite the fact that the light is so very different, similar aspects and conditions are at work upon me as in the landscapes of North Yorkshire. and Cumbria where I live. The Hebredean landscapes are however, less domesticated, the paths are less well-worn. less subject to over quotation, but the familiar qualities are very important in terms of continuity towards the subject.

All the pieces are part of my own internal landscape. The way I see is inevitably conditioned by my home patch. which in turn was chosen and has been conditioned by the imaginary landscapes I inhabited as a child.

Detail: Caoidh na Mara (The Lament of the Sea)

TItles in Gaelic signify a prime connection with e~her a specific place in the Hebrides, or with an idea or belief originating there. This use of Gaelic, (e~her correct. or from the colloquial) is a mark of respect for a place and culture which has given me so much.
Thanks to john and Nor Mciver of Great Bemera.

Detail: Caoidh na Mara (The Lament of the Sea)