The Kirkwall Lanes project was inspired by a stay in Kirkwall in January 2023. Initially photographing the lanes at night, a visual fascination with lanes disappearing into darkness led to me question why I found them so intriguing. My thoughts went to the parallels between human relationships and the way we interact in lanes: some people we pass without a word, others we stay and chat a while, while a few accompany us along the way. These interactions all go to make us who we are, just as the comings and goings in the lanes and closes contribute to Kirkwall’s history and character.
As a town evolves, people, owners, and businesses come and go; buildings are added, demolished, or remodelled; but the spaces in between, the lanes themselves, often remain. I see lanes (snickets, ginnels, cut-throughs...) as conduits of interaction, witnesses to history, to change and growth. Layers of the past built up thickly between zones of change, rich for excavation.
Layering these histories, I have developed ideas to represent Kirkwall's lanes, as they were and how they are now. An installation that would represent Kirkwall and its community over the ages, giving voice to not just the wealthy, but teasing out personal histories and rememberings, a de-colonialisation of history and a reflection on the spirit of Kirkwall and on the nature of our relationships with each other, no matter how transitory or brief, and the acknowledgement that it is the culmination of this layering that defines us.
