a new Mandy McIntosh collaboration.

Galloway Forest Park in Scotland was awarded dark sky park status on the 16th of November 2009, the International Year of Astronomy. The park comprises 300 square miles of forest and is one of the first wild places outside the USA to be recognised as an exceptional place from which to observe the stars in our galaxy. Artist Mandy McIntosh proposes to make a semi permanent dwelling in the Galloway Forest Park to be occupied by wandering stargazers and has invited Matthews to design and compose a flexible sonic intervention. Together they will work in partnership with the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance/Institute for Astronomy and the Forestry Commission, Scotland.

This is a Vital Spark Award and will be Matthews-McIntosh’s first full collaboration since their BAFTA awarded Weightless Animals 2004 and Mcintosh’s design and fabrication of upholstery for Sonic Bed_Scotland 2007 .

Day 1.Tues. 9^th June.

McIntosh_Matthews set off for the Galloway Forest in the perfectly recycled £250 Piggy-car, with camping gear, midge repellant, supplies, maps, compass and recording equipment, arriving safely in Newton Stewart for the kick off night.

The last 15 miles is through the forest and though it’s fabulous to be arriving, the smooth flat horizon of the farmed coniferous trees quietly disheartens. Where is the chaos of the real wooded landscapes? The local single malt is Banloch and out of stock everywhere but the morning caught wild river salmon and the Peter’s Throat are good localizing replacements. They are wild with delight to be finally in the air of the place they are to work in for months.

Day 2.Wed. 10^th June.

They rise early to meet Keith Muir, Manager of the Galloway Forest Park, Forestry Commission and be taken on a tour of some of its 373 square miles. They have not yet been to this part of SW Scotland and never with detail through forestry commission land. Keith is inspiring, knowledgeable and hospitable and soon they are seeing the rows of coniferous plantations as carefully tended Sitka Spruce trees (originally from west California) and the ruined landscape as harvested crops, not simply hillsides decimated.  Why does the cutting of trees present such images of devastation? This park provides a sixth of the wood required in the UK and if humans are going to continue to use wood and paper, well then lets grow it, not bring it in from abroad.

They also visit two bothies and an abandoned smallholding as potential sites. Bothy no.1 here, looks gingerbread-sweet in the landscape , but it’s used by local quad bikers and there’s even a perfect wheel spun doughnut in the grass outside, empty cans , rubbish, bottles and collapsing bunks inside with an atmosphere you  might only handle in night time movies.

The second one is the antithesis. Run by the mba, its door is carefully held closed with a stone, swept floor and clean sleeping platforms,(amazing wire joinery work) even a kitchen area with one hell of a view across the glen inside. Yes this one feels safe but its shelter feels so controlled, almost fervent,  or rather vibrating with the cleanliness of gortex, that this is not ideal either. Overall both bothies are so occupied by their own communities, that anything they did would be an invasion.

Glenhead, the third one, however, sits sweet as a nut. Tucked away on the edge of Glentrool Oakland, it’s a sealed house with several sheds, old fruit trees and the sense of a farming family working here for years. Keith is concerned about access as the public road through  the Lord of the Rings styley moss covered woodland ends some way up the valley. They love it and are seeing its potential as a training and retreat centre for evolutionary practises in all arts.  No electricity, the land and landscape providing work and succour for sustenance and learning.

After forestry commission tea and cake, thanks and farewell, they rally their thoughts over a pint of the finest local on a smooth lawn in town and head back to the hills to camp.

Yes it’s June and they go pitch their tent by a loch in Scotland in grass for free, the sun warm, their spirits high as they joyfully strip down to bandana bikinis and pitch the tent and flambé tofu and ginger and local courgettes, the astonishing evening light over the mirror smooth water, the silence vibrating. Haha yes, and the midges are fine, yes, its too early in the year for them. Haha. But then just as silently, they appear, not in ones but twenties, then thousands then millions. Their best repellant, 100% body covering costumes  and continuous air fanning might stop the bites, but the midges relentless presence is overbearing and they fall utterly silent to be able to eat and keep them off and still have a good time. It’s completely weird.

After dinner is a run through the forest and a zap back into the tent everything zipped up, don’t pee!. And it is freezing and the sleeping bags are too thin and they are having a Scottish camping experience.