LESLEY-ANN ROSE: Self-Directed Residency, 2014

Days at the Bothy: Before coming on the residency, I had looked at the history of the island and made a character and had a loose story to work on. My character is that of an old lady, the legendary sole survivor of the alleged massacre of the entire islands population down at the massacre cave somewhere between 1520 – 1560. I am working on this animation with my partner, Bryn.In our story, the character of the old lady is still alive today and wandering the island in loneliness, collecting rubbish and bones for her croft.

Single frame shots taken over time can be a challenge in studio conditions, we were prepared for the challenge of photographing outside in variable light. Over the week, we managed to shoot down at the singing sands, outside the bothy, in the Cathedral cave mouth and the grass outside the massacre cave.

Lucy asked if I would mind showing the children at the school what I was up to on the residency. We spent a morning making some little animations, the results of which can be viewed on my youtube channel: Lesley Rose. I met Camille at the school, whose book ‘Eigg, the story of an Island’ as well as giving a really good background to the islands history, contains an old ballad based of the old lady ‘Sad is the climbing’, which, if set to music, would make a good accompaniment to the animation.

Still from sunset sequence.

We would love to go back and continue our collaboration with the people and places of Eigg, Eddie and Lucy were great hosts and made us feel very welcome.