NA RAIDERS: 'EILEAN MÒR AIG AON DUINE IS SINNE GUN FHEANNAG | Solo Exhibition, Tiagh Chearsabhagh, N. UIst

Na Raiders: ‘Eilean Mòr Aig Aon Duine is Sinne Gun Fheannag’

If English translation is needed: ‘The Raiders: ‘An Entire Island for One Person and Us Without a Feannag’ 

 

Calum Mackinnon Ferguson (b,1998) is a conceptual artist working predominantly in sculpture and site specific installation, as well as expressive landscape painting.  Graduating from The Glasgow School of Art (2021), his practice evokes feelings of nature connectedness, raising awareness of often disregarded parts of ecologies and cultures. Ferguson’s Gàidhlig language and heritage is crucial as a connection to the land and people of the Hebrides. 

 

The Vatersay Raiders, (including Ferguson’s great-great grandfather Donnchadh Antanaidh Caimbeul) were imprisoned in 1908 for occupying the Isle of Vatersay, land which their ancestors where forcibly evicted from, by tyrannical Landlords.  Landless people seeking a life outside deprivation, taken to court by Lady Gordon Cathcart one of the wealthiest landowners in Scotland.  The ten imprisoned Raiders were later released after public outcry and the island later purchased by the Scottish Government to be divided into crofts for the Raiders and their families, a pivotal moment in Scottish land reform.

 

The installation is centred around the Feannag: the traditional method by which crops and in particular potatoes where cultivated in the Outer Hebrides. Potatoes were crucial to the survival of cottars who otherwise relied on fishing which was often undependable, effected by weather and sea conditions. 

The subsequent raids on Vatersay were driven out of necessity for food sovereignty and a means to produce sufficient food to feed themselves throughout the year. 

 

“Na Raiders: ‘Eilean Mòr Aig Aon Duine is Sinne Gun Feannag’” stands as a work in progress , part of Ferguson’s ongoing body of work celebrating the Vatersay Raiders, re-visiting themes of land reform, ownership, colonialism, Gaighlig culture, the suppression of the Geal and its impact on our relationships with place.

 

The works are a response to the artist’s extensive periods of research; stories heard from his grandparents, songs and folklore surrounding the Raids. “Na Raiders: ‘Eilean Mòr Aig Aon Duine is Sinne Gun Feannag’” also includes work made while Ferguson was undertaking Glasgow Life’s GUIR artist incubation programme in 2025.