Inshore - pink and black (1999)

The first exhibition originated by An Tobar, based on the the artist Ian Stephen's experience of sharing the daily life of the inshore fishermen of Mull and Iona. Recorded conversation, photography and found materials are used in an exhibition which is really a collaboration with the community involved in the industry. The catalogue includes a CD with poems, music, songs & recorded conversation from the wheelhouses.

The exhibition also included performances in An Tobar and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by Ian Stephen, Gordon Maclean and Jack Evans of poetry, stories and songs taken from conversations in wheelhouses.

"The poems came from the conversation of skippers and deckhands. I went to sea on the Dawn Treader, the Pioneer, Lady Gail, John Noddings' tupperware velvet boat with the big Honda and the Jessica Louise. These vessels were working in the Sound of Mull, West of Iona to Dubh Artach, Staffa and the Treshnish Isles and Iona Sound to Erraid. Additional conversations were recorded on piers and in kitchens around Mull. Everyone has been generous with their time, eloquent in their language and pretty funny with it."
Ian Stephen 1999

Anzac

looks like a scrapyard/ till you see it happening/ it's all over the side and/ there's your working decks/ at 10 or 12 metres/ give or take overhangs/ you're getting hard transmission/ through the deck/ basically/ in grand contact/ much beyond that and/ you're an android/ you've done the damage/ and don't know it/ till it's all on the surface/ it's got to be steel/ big sheets in the chines/ couple of long seams/ welded so you don't/ dislocate/ and you'd swear it was/ a round bilge/ forward looking sonar/ radar for the fog/ 2 GPS/ linked to the plotter/ liquid crystal/ flat compact/ 4 options for/ the depth under you/ feet/fathoms/metres/ and something called/ passa brassa/ on the Furuno.

Dawn Treader

you don't want too much yellow and red/ going to the hard/ that packed sand/ they can be there an all but/ fancy wee buggers/ need to be/ I've been at them 24 odd year/ GARDNER, WHALE, SPENCER CARTER,/ GUY COTTON, EMINOX, BESTO BUOY/ you couldn't tube them up in the North anyway/ hell of a short shite of a sea/ a high jabble/ we'll try that 50 fathom hole/ even if we didn't get them/ the top of the bank/ told you they were fancy/ WHITE POST, ARDTORNISH POINT, BEN EILANAN, GARMONY POINT, SGEIR NAN OBHAR, SCALLASTLE BAY/ squatties, hell of a footerie beasts/ fastners - creels that come up/ too damn fast/ aye launch it Donald/ we're shootin in arcs/ good gloves these/ so they should be/ £40 the pack/ these'll count 8 or 9 to the 2 lb/ good prawns these/ they'll maybe last through September/ October the velvets/ Lynn of Lorne.

Particular thanks to those whose conversation is used directly in this show: Alasdair Steptoe Maclean; Paul Gallagher; Davy McKie; Roland Crichton; Neil Cameron; Stephen MacCallum; John Noddings; Dougie Cowe; Ewan MacCrone; George Martin and Douglas Reid.

Also to Andrew Davies and Alison Rimmel, Secretaries of the local Fishermen's Associations, The staff and pupils of Bunessan school. To Ronnie Leckie for computer-graphics, Mark Jardine for the Iona alternative-boat experience; Douglas Wilson for the yarns and charts ; to Sheena Walker and Cally Maclean for the handwriting.