by catherine eckersall
Oil on Canvas
h: 90 w: 70 d: 4 (cms).
The bulrush, often found on riverbanks in Scotland, can also be found playing a role in faerylore. If a person with second sight has a bulrush swept across their eye, the world of the faeries will no longer be visible to them.
In Scottish folklore, rivers serve as a meeting point between the human world and the mythical otherworld of the faerys. The mysticism of the faerys is manifested visually in this natural environment, channelled through plants such as the common bulrush.
Landscapes with mythical associations, like the riverbank, can be explored through a visual language relevant to lived experiences in modern Scotland. In this vein, I have used a digital soundwave generated from the recording of a river to form the foundations of this painting, highlighting the continuance of superstitions in contemporary Scottish landscapes.
