By Wong Ka Ying /

There is an ancient saying on the Orkney Islands: “If you scratch the surface in Orkney, it will bleed archaeology.” This group of about 70 small islands is slightly smaller than Hong Kong but home to only 20,000 people. Despite its small size, Orkney has long produced artists and attracted creatives from elsewhere to its shores. In 1979, a modest yet significant art gallery was established, the Pier Arts Centre, in Stromness, Orkney’s second-largest town.

Scotland’s northernmost art gallery, it’s a sea away from the Svalbard Museum in Norway, the world’s northernmost museum. The gallery was not created by wealthy elites or set up by the government but by Margaret Gardiner, an anti-fascist, anti-Vietnam War pacifist and writer, alongside her artist friends. Gardiner descended from a prominent family – her father was an Egyptologist involved in the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. After graduating from Cambridge University, she briefly worked as a teacher and then, from the early 1930s onwards, devoted herself to social activism. She was also a major supporter of the artists who sought refuge in the southwestern English town of St Ives during World War II and continued to champion the development of emerging British artists after the war. Her first visit to Orkney in the 1950s left a lasting impression on her, leading to long-standing relationships with local artists. She purchased a two-storey house by the old pier in Stromness, transforming it into a space to store her collection of modern paintings and sculptures, and a studio for local artists.

Margaret Gardiner disliked being called a collector. Her close friend, British artist Barbara Hepworth, introduced her to many significant artists. Through friendship and as a means to support them, Gardiner began to acquire an important personal art collection. An archive of the development of British modernism, it later became the foundation of the Pier Arts Centre through her first donation, in 1979, of 67 pieces. Despite its small size, the Pier Arts Centre has one of the finest collections of 20th-century British art, with many pieces often loaned to international exhibitions. It has grown to include more than 180 works, featuring artists such as Hepworth, Sean Scully, Eva Rothschild and local talents such as Sylvia Wishart and Stanley Cursiter. The gallery on this remote island supports the development of young local artists, many of whom return to Orkney after studying elsewhere to hold exhibitions. We attended the solo exhibition of locally born-and-bred artist Leah Moodie, a recent painting graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, which was excellent.

During my visit to the Pier Arts Centre for the first time, I particularly admired the works of Wishart, who was born in 1936 in Stromness. Her paintings primarily depict Orkney’s landscapes – rolling farmlands, a dynamic sea and solitary lighthouses, churches, mills, docks, farms and castles in vast surroundings. She grew up in Stromness, working at the town’s post office while painting in her spare time to express her deep love for her birthplace. Encouraged by friends, she enrolled at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 1955, where she was a leading light. Her paintings, silkscreen prints and etchings documented Orkney’s changing seasons, agricultural and wildlife scenes, the dramatic views across straits, steep cliffs and the majestic Scottish landscapes. What impressed me the most was how she combined outdoor sketches with detailed observations of Orkney’s unpredictable weather and scenery seen from indoors, through windows as well as the reflections on the windows, while merging the two. She used paint and texture to construct layers and shapes or simply left areas of space blank to evoke the island’s crops and native landscapes. 

While she taught for years away from her hometown, Wishart would always return to Orkney during holidays to work on her art. She transformed an old warehouse by Stromness harbour into her home and studio, later helping Gardiner to turn it into the Pier Arts Centre. Wishart taught at Gray’s School of Art from 1969 for nearly two decades, influencing many Scottish artists and students, including Pier Arts Centre’s current director Neil Firth and even Hong Kong artists such as Christopher Ku and Joe Fan. For the last 30 years of her life, she lived on the islands and kept creating drawings and prints inspired by Orkney’s ever-changing landscapes, where fields meet the sea. 

I led our first workshop during the residency. Local residents were recruited to use The Orcadian, the island’s only newspaper, as material to make collages of poems, storybooks and zines. Surprisingly, even in such a sparsely populated area, the workshop was full. Participants from all walks of life came together to explore new ideas in their conscious and unconscious minds, creating beautiful works in just a few hours. 

An archaeologist said that history was repetitive. She had excavated a site while reading daily news on wars. She was of the belief that time would eventually bring peace. A retired teacher who came to Orkney every year for quiet reflection found herself pondering the meaning of farewell, prompted by obituaries in the newspaper and news of a friend’s terminal illness. A writer stuck in a creative rut returned to Orkney, his birthplace, to find inspiration. Reading the news about the ocean brought to his mind the connection between life and home, and the question of where to go next. A reporter from The Orcadian, who was also a poet, had been interested in the workshop from the start. He quickly gathered poetic sentences from the newspaper, piecing them together with speed due to his professional familiarity with the material. Three young art students, meanwhile, earnestly worked on their visual diaries documenting their summer on Orkney. Our artist Phoebe Man created a collage of island flowers related to her residency project on commemorative wreaths, while Sara Tse focused on collecting newspaper images of the Orkney wildlife – wild hares, puffins, sea lions, whales – that inspired her soft sculptures. Shirley Tse explored the theme of renewable energy, combining news about tides with emotional astrology readings to create a romantic zine about the moon and astronomy.

Workshops such as these are vital in a residency, allowing artists to engage meaningfully with local residents. We are grateful for the interest Orcadians showed in us. By creating art, we transcended the boundaries of language and cultural background to communicate our thoughts and feelings directly, and spent a delightful weekend together. 

Although the population is small, Orkney has produced a remarkable number of artists, undoubtedly related to its stunning natural landscapes and ample living space. There are more sheep than people on the islands and no shortage of land. During our residency, we often encountered artists in various places. Due to a lack of workers, some people might teach in the morning, work at a museum at noon and still have time to go home to create art before sunset. Others, in their 60s, attend art or archaeology courses at the community college out of interest, and in their spare time might work as tour guides or farmers, or take on various odd jobs. The manager of the gallery hosting us is also a print artist, the radio host who interviewed us is also an English teacher at a local school and the museum receptionist is a mature university student. Setting aside healthcare, weather and geographic distance, such a lifestyle is quite enviable: a place with advanced urban infrastructure and community planning but without the stifling fast pace of city life. Many young families are moving to Orkney with their children, hoping to raise them in a natural, low-stress environment.

In the first few days after we arrived, Phoebe Man, who had come ahead of us, led us on a hike to familiarise ourselves with the surroundings. She had already told us that the local thrift shops were interesting, which was a pleasant surprise for our group of 

artists, as many of us are fond of antiques and second-hand goods. For example, Pak Chai and Shirley enjoy historical stories and Sara collects vintage items. In my own art practice, I consciously divide materials into two categories. For commercial events or gallery works, I use new, mass-produced materials; but for community or nonprofit projects, I collect second-hand items that I come across by chance, which often have their own stories. The gift economy is reflected in the circulation of objects within the community, where things that no longer serve one person find their way to someone who needs them. Some objects carry personal or community stories, becoming tangible history through the passage of time and oral traditions. By transforming these objects in an artistic way, I give them a new life beyond their original purpose, adding layers of interpretation and appreciation, while increasing the potential for their stories to be passed down. Of course, there are some beautiful antiques that I am reluctant to alter, fearing I might destroy their inherent beauty due to my modest abilities. I prefer to collect the cheapest, most neglected and often broken second-hand items for my re-creations.

We visited the thrift shops in Orkney regularly, and each visit brought new surprises. I especially paid attention to items that were stuck on a shelf or objects that appeared in multiple shops in similar styles, as these reflect a kind of collective taste or lifestyle, which could be tied to local culture, customs or the after-effects of surplus production and marketing by large companies. One of my most vivid memories is stepping into a second-hand shop and hearing a popular old song playing on the radio. Before the song ended, we left the shop and walked into the next one, where the same radio station was playing the same song. At the third store, I finally heard the radio host’s voice – same street, same island, same local radio station and a shared rhythm of life. After observing and collecting for over a month, I became particularly fond of the pet-themed jigsaw puzzles and mirror hangings. Both are declarations of love meant to be displayed at home – uncool, direct, cute and somewhat useless, making them perfect for re-creation.

The house we stayed in had plenty of studio space, allowing each artist to fully focus on their work. Such a luxury is unimaginable in Hong Kong. Although our residency was not long, the work-life balance and the relaxed pace of life, with the town winding down by 4pm, greatly increased our productivity. While there are a few art supplies shops on Orkney, they are not the professional kind you might imagine, and some specialised supplies still need to be ordered by mail or brought in from elsewhere. But this didn’t dampen the creative spirit and drive of the artists. In addition to working on our own projects, we participated in a workshop at a local print studio, learning 18th-century techniques to create Pride Month posters.

Not long after our return to Hong Kong, we heard that the UK government was slashing its arts funding due to the weak economy. In response, Scottish artists organised petitions and gatherings, urging the government to reconsider. The historical print studio on the island, which has not been profitable for years, relies heavily on government support for education and conservation efforts. They quickly issued a statement, hoping the government would rethink its decision. In a community where both a free market and gift economy coexist, even a remote island like Orkney cannot escape the constraints and influence of larger systems.

There is not much information about Orkney available in Chinese, which is one of the reasons why this exchange programme holds so much value: island-to-island dialogue and resonance. Hongkongers might not have heard of Orkney but Orkney residents seem to know Hong Kong quite well. We met people who had visited relatives in Hong Kong, passed through Hong Kong on a layover, worked there or even lived in Hong Kong and started families as a result. They are well informed and concerned about the current events and news coming out of Hong Kong. A place it takes three flights to reach from Hong Kong might seem worlds apart in a physical sense, but in terms of spiritual significance, the distance between the two is shorter that one would imagine. We will continue to recount the people we met, the events we experienced and the art we created during our residency, in the hope that with a little more background knowledge, readers will see themselves in our stories.

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在奧克尼群島（Orkney Islands）有句古諺語：「只要你輕刮地面，考古文物就會浮現。」由多達70個小島組成的群島，面積約香港一半大，人口只有二萬人，多年來卻盛產藝術家，又吸引不少外地藝術家移居小島，甚至在1970年代尾建設了麻雀雖小但意義重大的美術館，那就是位處奧克尼群島第二大城鎮斯特羅姆內斯.(Stromness).的.Pier Arts Centre。

Pier Arts Centre.成立於1979年，是蘇格蘭最北的美術館，一海之隔就是世界上最北的博物館，位於挪威的.Svalbard Museum。最令人神往的是美術館並不是由財閥巨擘或是政府主導設立，而是由反法西斯、反越戰的和平主義份子和作家.Margaret Gardiner.和藝術家朋友們一起建立的。當然.Margaret Gardiner.的家庭來頭也不小，她的父親是有份協助打開圖坦卡蒙墳墓的埃及學家，Margaret.在劍橋大學畢業曾短暫擔任教師，其後在1930年代早期開始全力投入社運，並成為二次大戰時小部份往聖艾夫斯（St. Ives）尋求庇護的藝術家們的主要支持者，且於戰後大力支援英國新生代藝術家發展。1950年代她初次到訪奧克尼後便深深喜歡上島嶼，與本地的藝術家建立了日久的聯繫，後來購入了斯特羅姆內斯舊碼頭邊的兩層房子，改造來收藏她的現代繪畫和雕塑作品，以及讓島上藝術家作為工作室。

Margaret Gardiner.討厭被稱為收藏家，她的摯友，英國藝術家.Barbara Hepworth.又介紹了其他重要藝術家讓她認識，因為友誼和幫助藝術家，Margaret Gardiner 得以收集了一批非常個人且重要的藝術收藏，這些作品密切記錄了英國現代主義的發展，其後於1979年捐出了67件藏品，Pier Arts Centre.由此成立。儘管規模不大，但.Pier Arts Centre.的館藏被認為是英國20世紀藝街最優秀的收藏之一，重要作品經常借展於世界各地展覽，收藏不斷增長，現已包含超過180件作品，包括.Barbara Hepworth, Sean Scully, Eva Rothschild, Olafur Eliasson.等人的藝術品，還有當地藝術家如.Sylvia Wishart.和.Stanley Cursiter.的作品。偏遠的小島上的美術館多年來一直支持本地年輕藝術家發展，這些以藝術為志業的年輕奧克尼人往外求學後，再回到出生地辦展覽意義非凡，我們是次參觀了出生和成長於奧克尼，剛畢業於.Edinburgh College of Art.主修繪畫的Leah Moodie.的個展，很不錯看！

首次到訪.Pier Arts Centre，我最喜歡的是1936年生於斯特羅姆內斯的Sylvia Wishart.的畫作。Sylvia Wishart.的畫多描畫奧克尼的自然景色：起伏的農田和多變的大海，和立於廣闊景色次中的燈塔、教堂、磨坊、碼頭、農莊和城堡。在小鎮長大的Sylvia Wishart本於鎮上的郵局工作，閒時才畫畫表達對出生地深刻的愛，後來在朋友鼓勵下1955年才到亞伯丁（Aberdeen）的.Gray’s School of Art.求學，大放異彩。Sylvia Wishart的繪畫、絲網印刷和蝕刻版畫記錄了奧克尼的季節變換、農業和野生動植物景觀、橫跨海峽的壯麗風景，遠處山丘的陡峭懸崖以及蘇格蘭的壯闊土地。我最印象深刻的是她在腦海中用幻想將在室外寫生，與在室內觀測到外面陰晴不定的天氣和景象細節在構圖上相結合，然後藉描畫窗戶及其反映出的室內家居倒影融為一體，並利用顏料和紋理來構建層次和形狀或是留些空白，以喚起觀者對農作物和本土景觀的聯想。

Sylvia Wishart.就算長年在外教學都會趁假期回到奧克尼創作，並將斯特羅姆內斯港口前的一個舊倉庫改造成為住所和工作室，後來協助她好朋友Margaret Gardiner.將這古屋變成.Pier Arts Centre。她1969年返回.Gray’s School of Art教學，教了差不多廿年，許多蘇格蘭的藝術家、Pier Arts Centre.的現任館長、以至香港藝術家谷敏超和.Joe Fan.都是她的學生。她人生最後的三十年都長居此地，持續創作出受永鹿變化、面靠汪洋的田野景觀啟發的繪畫和版畫。

我們駐留的第一個工作坊由黃嘉瀛帶領，招募了當地居民一同以島些唯一的報紙《The Orcadian》作創作材料，拼貼出新詩、故事書和小誌（Zine）。意想不到的是，在人口密度奇低的奧克尼招生還是可以滿座。參加者身份各有不同，一同在有意識和無意識之間發掘潛意識中的新念頭，在短短數小時內就做出漂亮的成品。考古學家認為歷史是重複的，在發掘遺址的同時閱讀每天的戰爭新聞，她相信時間最終會帶來和平；每年來奧克尼靜休的退休教師，她的朋友最近發現身患絕症，使她在報紙上的訃告和死亡新聞之間思考Farewell的意義；作家因創作到達瓶頸，回到出生地奧克尼尋求突破，讀到海洋的新聞就想到生命和居所的連繫，何去何從的命題；《The Orcadian》的記者本身都是詩人，他從一開始就對工作坊滿有興趣，因為工作關係，很快便從報紙上收集到他認為具詩意的句子拼湊在一起；還有三位年輕的藝術學生，非常認真地作起有關在奧克尼渡過暑假的Visual Diary。我們的藝術家文晶瑩創作了以島上花卉為題的拼貼，與其駐留創作的紀念花圈有關；謝淑婷則專心收集報紙上的奧克尼野生動物，野兔、海鸚鵡、海獅、鯨魚，都是她做布偶的靈感；謝淑妮研究再生能源，報紙上理性的潮汐新聞和感性的星座解讀相映成趣，拼在一起就成了浪漫的月亮天文小誌。

工作坊是駐留計劃中能讓藝術家面對面與當地居民深入交流的重要機會，非常感恩Orcadians對香港來的我們這麼感興趣，以藝術創作直白交流跨越語言和文化背景的思想和感受，一起渡過了一個快樂的週末。

Orkney人口雖少，卻盛產藝術家，絕對跟得天獨厚的自然美景和寬敞的居住空間有關，島上羊比人多，沒有土地問題。我們駐留期間，在不同地方都偶遇到藝術工作者，因為人力不足，他們可能早上教書，中午博物館上班，未到黃昏就可下班回家創作，或是到六十多歲高齡，因興趣在社區大學讀個藝術或考古課程，閒時再做導遊或種田，或是打打不同散工，接待我們的美術館經理同時是版畫藝術家，訪問我們的電台主持也是中小學英文老師，博物館接待員也是高齡大學生，除卻醫療、天氣和地理距離，這樣的生活確是令人嚮往，有城市的先進建設和社區規劃，但沒有城市令人窒息的急速節奏，所以許多年輕家庭帶同孩子移居，希望能在自然和低壓環境下育兒。

頭數天到埗後，先來的文晶瑩帶我們徒步熟悉環境，她一早預告了當地的.Thrift Store.慈善二手店非常有意思，恰巧同團的藝術家都對古董和二手物很有興趣，譬如柏齊和.Shirley.都喜歡歷史故事，Sara也有收藏開Vintage.小物。我自己的藝術創作選用物料時有意識地分開兩類，如果是商業活動、給畫廊的作品，我會挑全新的、大量生產的現成物做材料，如果是做社區、非牟利組織的作品，我會用上慢慢搜集回來、有緣遇上的、有故事的二手物。禮物經濟可是體現在社區物件流轉之中，對我或你現在沒有用的又傳到每一位需要的人手上，或是有個人故事、社區故事，經過時間沉澱和口耳相傳成為有形的歷史，利用藝術手法加以轉化，除了物件本身的有限的用途外，換個面貌變身成為藝術品，即多了看待、賞析的角度，多了傳承的可能性。當然有些非常漂亮的古董，因為能力低，我也不捨得把它改造，怕破壞了本身的美。我比較喜歡收集在角落的、最便宜的、殘缺的二手物二次創作。

我們定期到訪.Orkney.的.Thrift Store，每次到訪都有驚喜，我特別留意賣不掉的東西，或是出現在多數店家、同類型同風格的物件，它們反映了一種集體的品味或是生活習慣，可以是地方文化、風俗習慣，也可以是大連鎖店生產過剩和行銷的後遺。我最記得第一次踏入二手店，店員聽着收音機，收音機播着一首流行老歌，還未播完就離開店了，走進旁邊第二間二手店，還是相同的電台播着相同的歌，走到第三間店，聽到了電台節目主持人的聲音，同一條街道，同一個小島電台，同一樣的生活軌跡。個多月的觀察和蒐集後，我特別鍾情他們的寵物圖案拼圖和鏡子掛飾，兩者都是種放在家中的愛的宣言，老土直接，可愛又沒什麼用途，非常適合再創作。

駐留的房子有充足的工作室空間，讓每位主流的藝術家都能專心投入創作，是在香港難以想像的奢侈事情。雖然駐留時間不太長，但.work-life balance.和城市下午4時就休息的氣氛，大大增加了藝術家的工作效率。在Orkney.有數家美術手工用品鋪，但不要想像是專業的美術用品供應商，有些專業用品還是要郵購，或是從外地帶回來，但是無礙藝術工作者想要創作的慾望和追求。除了做自己做開的創作，我們中間還參與了當地版畫工作室的工作坊，學習用18世紀的技法製作.Pride Month.的版畫海報。

我們回港不久，就傳來英國政府因經濟環境不好大量削減支援藝文的開支，蘇格蘭的藝術家因此搞聯署和集會，要求政府正視問題。島上的歷史版畫室賺不了什麼錢，多年來都是靠政府支援做教育、做保育，他們馬上就發了聲明，希望政府三思削資決定。在自由經濟和禮物經濟並行的社區，小島縱然遠離繁囂，還是有些地方逃不掉大體制的掣肘和影響。有關奧克尼的中文資料不多，這亦是是次交流計劃具重要價值的地方：島島交流、島島共鳴。香港人未必聽過奧克尼，可是奧克尼人卻個個認識香港，我們遇過到香港探親的、經香港轉機的、到香港工作的、居住過在香港和因此組織了家庭的奧克尼人，他們對香港新聞和現況都甚為掌握和關心。轉了三程機才能到達的地方，在物理意義上的確和香港地天各一方，但在精神意義上，卻沒有想像中那樣遠。我們會陸續訴說在奧克尼遇上的人和事、駐留期間的藝術創作，希望多一點背景資料，讓大家讀起來更有共鳴。