WATERFALLS
An exhibition of poetry and images, led by artist and photographer Oscar Van Heek
Authors including Kathleen Jamie, Jen Hadfield, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Cal Flyn, John Glenday, Malachy Tallack, Amanda Thomson, Elspeth Wilson, Ceitidh Campbell and Marjorie Lotfi have responded to the incredible waterfalls of Scotland with a selection of specially commissioned poems and essays.
Each piece of writing accompanies one of Oscar Van Heek’s stunning black and white photographs.
The space the magnitude of mountains and waterfalls. I live in the eye, and my imagination, surpassed, is at rest. I shall learn poetry here
John Keats, on a walking tour of Scotland
The photographs and poems will be on display at the Scottish Poetry Library throughout July and August. Prints and postcards of all the works are available to purchase – information on prices and purchasing can be found here.
You can listen to recordings of some of the written works commissioned for the project on the Scottish Poetry Library Soundcloud.
You can find out more about the project on Oscar Van Heek’s website (external link).
In July and August, we are hosting a unique exhibition – WATERFALLS – combining poetry and images, led by artist and photographer Oscar van Heek.
Authors including; Kathleen Jamie; Jen Hadfield; Anthony Vahni Capildeo; Cal Flyn; John Glenday; Malachy Tallack; Amanda Thomson; Elspeth Wilson; Ceitidh Campbell and Marjorie Lotfi, have responded to Scotland’s waterfalls with a selection of specially commissioned, poems and essays. You can listen to many of the commissions read by the artists further down this page.
Background
‘The space the magnitude of mountains and waterfalls. I live in the eye, and my imagination, surpassed, is at rest. I shall learn poetry here’.
So writes Keats on his walking tour of Scotland. Taking a grand tour of Scotland and visiting the spectacular waterfalls, became a national obsession with likes of Turner, Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Byron and Burns, all writing numerous poems, essays and diary entries about their visits. Since those heady Victorian days however, the paths leading to well over a thousand waterfalls, have become overgrown, and many falls have all but disappeared from our maps.
Commission
Now, against the backdrop of climate change and a global pandemic, there has never been a more urgent need to reconnect with nature. WATERFALLS provided contemporary authors with a specially designed app; ‘Walks and Waterfalls’, to locate and discover hidden waterfalls all around Scotland. After visiting waterfalls of their choice, authors responded with poems and short essays, to which Oscar van Heek in turn responded with specially created images.
Event
Join John Glenday, Amanda Thomson and Oscar van Heek, who will read and discuss their – and others’ – contributions to the project on the exhibition’s opening night, Friday July 7 from 7pm. Tickets are available on Eventbright.
Recordings
You can listen to readings by many of the writers involved in the project:
Learn more
Kathleen Raine
The landscape of the Highlands and that of her childhood Northumbria find a place in the poetry of Kathleen Raine, which largely explores the relationship between man and nature and man and the sacred.
Jen Hadfield
Jen Hadfield has family in Canada and England, and her adopted home is Shetland; her writing is often drawn to the contradictions of travel and home, the music of voices, and the importance of land and place.
John Glenday
A poet who combines the everyday and the transcendent, John Glenday has four collections of poetry.
Ceitidh Chaimbeul
Ceitidh Campbell
’S e tidsear, seinneadair agus bàrd a th’ann Ceitidh Chaimbeul. Thogadh i ann an Loch Aillse ach ’s ann à Ratharsair, Inbhir Nis agus Ceann na Cuthaige a tha a teaghlach. Choisinn i Bonn Òir a’ Chomuinn ann 2018....Ceitidh Campbell
