Bob Tulloch was brought up in a croft cottage called Da Lees, in the early 1900′s, at the far end of Lunna Ness, a remote and jutting peninsula in the North East of Shetland mainland. This now ruinous pile sits close to the shore on the edge of the barren & windswept moor, surrounded by thousands of discarded scattered Blueshell Mussel shells churned up from the sea below.
In January 2020, some 100 years after grandfather Bob lived in the cottage, and 35 years since her first visit, Sonje returned to Shetland on a personal & artistic quest. The isolation of this remote archipelago seemingly drifting in the dramatic & turbulent North Sea; her longstanding Shetland ancestry and late C19th Yorkshire Hibbert fish merchant connections to the isles; underpin the inspiration for the giant ceramic mussel shells which belong to a body of work called Seaweed In The Voe.
The research involved is ongoing, drawing on discussions with still present Shetland connections and personal meanderings around the dramatic edges of these geologically phenominal & blustery isles. The fascinating narrative of historical remote croft living weaves a symbiotic relationsip with the late 20th Century entrepreneurial success; with seafaring & fishing tradition and threads of what it is to be a Shetlander woven in between. And of course not to forget the weather!
The Giant Ceramic Mussels Shells were developed during the pandemic lockdown 2020 and in June 2021 Sonje embarked on a one month Artistic Residency at The Booth in Scalloway, the ancient capital of Shetland. As part of this residency the large ceramic sculptures were taken on an epic journey, for a very memorable photo shoot to the remote and now ruined croft house where her grandfather grew up. An additional two week Artist Residency in Fair Isle in Feb 2022, enabled the continuation research of this journey.
To add further to the unravelling of this colourful historical yarn, images of the Giant Mussel Shells were accepted as part of The Fishermans Mission Annual calendar 2022, a wonderful platform to celebrate the artistic and historical fuelled journey that the shells have been on so far. Several of the giant ceramic mussel shells are now sold and in private collections around UK. Three are still available for sale or exhibition and can be viewed, along with ongoing works, from the studio where Sonje resides, in the rugged & remote north of Mainland Shetland.
SEAWEED IN THE VOE
