Meet our artists in residence 2024

Upper Tweed: Sam Laughlin
June – September, 2024

How has your residency been so far?

So far it's been a wonderful and intensively productive four weeks. Photography is often very weather contingent and I've been quite lucky in that regard, with some incredible evening light around the solstice.

I've been staying off-grid in either of two buildings owned by Borders Forest Trust – one is a cabin at their Corehead site and the other a more remote barn up at Gameshope. I've also been visiting Carrifran Wildwood, where BFT established a native woodland more than 20 years ago. Each site is a forest in the process of becoming, and each is at a different stage in its development, which is fascinating and very inspiring. Everywhere I look I can see positive change in the form of new growth. I've been very detail-oriented thus far, photographing plants and insects which speak to the positive impact of Borders Forest Trust's work in restoring ecosystems.


What have you discovered that you didn’t expect to discover?

I've been using the residency as a chance to experiment with new equipment, techniques and ideas, which has been very freeing. There have been a few strands to my response – some are very intuitive and reactive, whereas others are more cerebral or process-led, such as my continuing development of long exposure techniques (as a way to respond to the various natural processes occurring at different timescales in the Wild Heart).

Water has also been a key theme. This reflects the overarching theme of the residency, but also the positive impact BFT is having on the hydrology of the area. At Gameshope in particular I have met plenty of people who come to swim in the pools along the burn and have had many conversations about the changes taking place in the landscape. One unexpected discovery was an enormous wasp called a Birch Sawfly, which I found at Gameshope. This is an insect closely associated with birch woodland and something which would not be there if not for Borders Forest Trust.


What are your plans for the rest of the residency?

In my final fortnight I plan to continue developing experimental techniques – building on what I have produced already, but I also want to push the collaborative aspect, engaging further with people from local communities. During a workshop, participants placed pinhole cameras around Tweedhope – these will have been exposing for three months when we collect them and I've very excited to see the results.

I'll also be beginning to plan the exhibition which will be the culmination of the residency - this will be at Annandale Water Hall coinciding with the Moffat Walking Weekend (27-29 September).

Middle Tweed: Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges
May – October, 2024

How has your residency been so far?

Our Trodden Paths Residency has given us the opportunity to explore the paths along the Tweed over the (very rainy) weeks between May and September. Key to the residency is the development of alternative meanings and insights, so we decided to rename the residency ‘(un)trodden paths’ and to be open to new paths and unexpected discoveries.

Initially we spent time getting to know the area by meeting people, walking and exploring. As we walked, we thought about the layers of relationships that the river holds as it flows through the landscape. Often these are human-centred, but interwoven with these are other stories that move backwards and forwards in time and space. 

We’ve been interested in teasing out some of these perspectives and finding ways of inviting people into this process so we developed a number of ‘Field Trips’. To date these have explored the more-than-human pathways that intersect with our own in Pollinator Pathways; the river as site for communication in Babe, Lost Letters; and the river as a liminal space for dreaming and imagining in Micro-Utopias. We see these trips as a way of opening up the concept of ‘asking as we walk’ (Caminando preguntamos), a process of listening and dialogue.


What have you discovered that you didn’t expect to discover? 

On one excursion Robbie met a dog walker, a local man who challenged the romanticised notion of the Tweed, promoted to tourists as a beautiful place to visit. Instead, he likened the river to a drug coursing through the veins of the Borders, numbing the population to the inequalities present in the towns and villages that it runs through. This was a very powerful and different image of the river; a vein flooded with morphine, numbing the landscape around it.

We have realised that the river has different meanings to different people, which leads to different senses of connection (or disconnection) with it. The identity of the river, its history and ecology are very much bound together with land ownership, fishing and the Borders economy and this impacts everyone’s relationship with and access to the river.


What are your plans for the rest of the residency?

We’re continuing to gather letters for ‘Babe’, our mobile exhibition of Lost Letters. Please do contribute.

We’ll be taking part in the Walking and Wheeling Festival (5th-8th September) with some creative input to a walk on Friday 6th and will be designing a riverside session for participants of the Springboard Assembly in Walkerburn on 5th September.

We’ll also be installing a new work in Little Art Hub in Galashiels (9th-13th September) that draws on all of our research areas. And we’ll be creating a new site-specific work using material gathered in our Field Trips, to be unveiled in October.

Lower Tweed: Annie Lord
July – September, 2024

How has your residency been so far?

My residency is centred on Berwick Bridge, an incredible, over 400-year-old sandstone structure. It’s situated on the Tweed estuary, and I’ve loved spending time with it at different times of the day, observing its change of appearance as the tide goes in and out.

But this is no solitary residency, and the most striking aspect is how quickly I’ve got to know people, and how readily they’ve become involved in my process. It’s all felt very collaborative. Berwick-upon-Tweed has a great sense of community, and I’ve been warmly welcomed.


What have you discovered that you didn’t expect to discover?

During my time in Berwick archives, I’ve found out lots of interesting details about the construction of the bridge: oyster shells were used to make lime mortar, and wood was brought from Chopwell woods in Gateshead.

I was also surprised (and pleased) to find many women listed in the original account books. They had many roles, including transporting coals, and preparing the surface of the bridge to ready it for pedestrians. Beforehand I’d read that 170 people were initially employed to construct the bridge but when I checked this with the original sources, it wasn’t quite right. The account books aren’t currently digitised, and this showed the importance of working with primary sources. It’s such a treat to hold these amazing artefacts in your hands!

What are your plans for the rest of the residency?

A visit to Roluna Stone in Tweedmouth taught me lots about the materials and techniques currently being used to repair the bridge and I walked back to the studio with a rucksack full of sandstone chips. After a bit of experimentation, I managed to transform it into handmade paint. Since then, I’ve been sharing this exciting material during workshops and sketching sessions.

My plan is to use this handmade paint to honour the people who constructed the bridge, and I’ll be inviting people to take part in this. There’s still time to get involved. If you’d like to hear about future workshops you can sign up to my mailing list by dropping me a line on annieberwickbridge@gmail.com