An ATLAS Arts commission by Cooking Sections, Isle of Skye. Set on the intertidal zone at Bayfield, CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones explores the environmental effects of aquaculture and reacts to the changing shores of Portree. Each day at low tide, the installation emerges above the sea and functions as a dining table, with free tastings of recipes featuring ocean purifiers: seaweeds, oysters, clams and mussels. At high tide, the installation works as an underwater oyster table. During ten days in September, CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones is activated by Cooking Sections in collaboration with local stakeholders, residents, politicians and researchers. Over breakfast, lunch, or dinner (according to the tides), performative meals feature a series of CLIMAVORE ingredients that respond to the environmental challenges of Scottish waters. The long-term project aims to look at CLIMAVORE forms of eating that address environmental regeneration and promote more responsive aqua-cultures. CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones promotes the consumption of seaweeds and bivalves. Cooking Sections have teamed up with restaurants and food establishments across the island to incorporate CLIMAVORE dishes in their menus. A food truck, bakery, cafes, and fine dining restaurants offer a range of plates and items which can contribute to cleaning Skye’s waters through their natural growth. These animals and plants purify the water by breathing, and can also help monitor the improvement of water quality along the coast of the island.
The landscape and aqua-cultures of the Isle of Skye have changed over centuries as a result of human adaptation to climatic alterations and changing power structures. Coastal dwellers used the ‘agriculturally unusable’ or ‘unproductive’ littoral zone to reinvent subsistence at the margins. The method to obtain protein from such a harsh landscape required building walls to fish nutrients out of the surrounding rough waters. Such devices consisted on assemblages of wood and stone course materials, carefully laid, and woven in curved formations. With the receding low tide they would retain a variety of fish (herring, sprats, cod, shrimps, turbot, trout or salmon). Known as fish traps, cairidh in Gaelic or yairs or weirs in old English, these machines carefully harvested the tidal zone. The sophisticated knowledge on the movement of fish throughout the year across different zones of the foreshore was reflected in the shape in which such tidal walls would be conceived and built to target an optimal catch from different species. They had an open entrance at high tide, but fish could find no exit when the tide went out. Human-induced climatic alterations of the waters, ranging from increasing acidification of the oceans, appearance of new parasites and disappearance of species, could be approached through a different form of eating and sourcing of nutrients. Other understanding of aquacultures in the Isle of Skye and its tidal zones can provide the base to rethink the contemporary ecological imaginary of the island. As a response, the notion of CLIMAVORE reads and eats landscapes following such food landscape alterations. To eat, to devour, according to a responsive understanding of the current climate. Different from intensive open-net salmon farming that produces an excess of nitrogen (and adds antibiotics, parasites and chemicals to the water), other creatures do opposite processes, like purifying the water by breathing. One mussel is able to filter up to 25 litres of water a day, and one single oyster up to 120 litres. So do other bivalves like clams, scallops, razor clams, and seaweeds. The latter also provide an incredible source of easy-access protein without the need for irrigation or fertilisers. None of them are rare to the Scottish waters. Crofters have traditionally used the tidal zone not only for fish traps, but also to forage seaweed for bread, soups, and other concoctions. Contrary to corporate and governmental interests, coastal ‘development’ is an appropriation that more likely means building resorts, expensive housing, or intensive open-net fish farming facilities, than the enhancement of the socio-economic-environmental welfare of coastal water-dependent communities. Hence, CLIMAVORE in Skye aims to rethink the environmental futures of coastal inhabitation and the coastal commons through a diet that can effectively transform desires and infrastructure. It takes the tidal zone of the island as an ambiguous site that appears, disappears, reappears, and constantly changes in size. That coastal space has no clear definition and opens up for murky, yet cleaner, usership; and can become today the entrance into a new ecology, economy and imaginary. Cooking Sections, September 2017
CLIMAVORE is a long-term project initiated by Cooking Sections in 2015. It sets out to envision seasons of food production and consumption that react to climatic events and human induced alterations of the landscape. Different from the now obsolete Eurocentric cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter, CLIMAVORE rethinks the construction of space and infrastructure by focusing on how climate alterations offer a new set of clues to adapt our diet to them. For instance, how to shift the food landscape to drought resistant crops in a period of water scarcity or how to promote the planting of dune stabilising vegetables in times of coastal flash floods. climavore.org
ATLAS Arts is an award winning, pioneering producer and commissioner of contemporary art that creates connections between artists and audiences and responds to the unique qualities of this region, its landscape, its culture and its people. Through our work we provide unique opportunities for artists to develop ambitious, often temporary durational work in the public realm. atlasarts.org.uk Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual & Alon Schwabe) is a duo of spatial practitioners based out of London. It was born to explore the systems that organize the WORLD through FOOD. Using installation, performance, mapping and video, their research-based practice explores the overlapping boundaries between visual arts, architecture and geopolitics. Cooking Sections was part of the exhibition at the U.S. Pavilion, 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Their work has also been exhibited at Delfina Foundation, London; Glasgow International; Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Victoria & Albert Museum; and dOCUMENTA(13) among others. In 2016 they opened The Empire Remains Shop. They currently teach at the RCA, London. cooking-sections.com Graphic Design – An Endless Supply Tidal Outfits– Muslin Brothers Fabrication – P.L.D. Smiddy
On Tidal Zones
Climavore: On Tidal Zones is made possible thanks to Calum Matheson supporting the installation. And to Highland Council Planning Department, Portree Community Centre, Marine Scotland, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scottish National Heritage, Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, Wasps, West Highland College; Isle of Harris Gin, Lochnell Oysters, Mara Seaweed, Ogilvy Vodka, Talisker Whisky; Eilean Armstrong, Hugh Cheape, Ruth Clark, Alan Dickson, Colin Hattersley, Ron Henderson, Tony Legg, Peter MacAskill, Bonnie McCay, Alex MacInnes, James Merryweather, Calum Munro, Niall Munro, Fiona Stewart, Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, Andrew Tait, Ewan Thomson, Martin Wildgoose, Karen Wilton, Ian McKay, Tim Wear, and many others who supported the process.
The installation is located in the waters of Bayfield and is accessible at low tide only. It is recommended to come equipped with wellies, and dress appropriately according to the weather.
Menu
COLLATERAL PROGRAMME
Thursday 14 September , Preview 19.30-21.00
Low tide 20.45
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Vraec Whisky – Kelp Nitrogen-Fix Fizz – Kelp Sea Forest Crackers – Nori, Wakame, Spirulina Oxidizing Chips – Nori, Kelp Coastal Fortifiers – Common Oysters
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15–23 September Film Programme
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How I fell in love with a fish, Dan Barber TED Talk (2010) Aquaculture, Victoria Claire Bernie (2010) Waterland, David Bickley (1988) Scottish Fisher Girls, British Pathé Ltd (1920) Scallop Farmers, Nick Hand (2014) Underneath, Nick Middleton (2017) Oyster, Margaret Salmon (2014) Monday – Saturday, 10.00–17.00 ATLAS Arts Basement, Skye Gathering Hall Portree, IV51 9BZ
Elishander Uig
Culnacnoc
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Friday 15 September, 9.30
Low tide 9.35
Seaweed Crunchy Shingle – Dulse, Carrageenan and conversation with Rory MacPhee (Mara Seaweed)
Stein
14–30 September The Banks of Bayfield: Salmon Fishing in Skye and Raasay 1944–1962
Saturday 16 September, 10.30
Low tide 10.56
Littoral Scones – Sea Lettuce, Dulse Offshore Cookies – Nori Bloody Oyster Cocktails – Common Oysters and The Littoral and the Liminal: Openings for Change in the Coastal Commons. Talk by anthropologist Bonnie McCay
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10.00–13.00, 14.00–17.00 Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre Portree, IV51 9HA
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Friday 15 September Eglantine and Oyster by Margaret Salmon
Portree
Sunday 17 September, 11.30
Followed by Q&A with Margaret Salmon 15.00–17.30 Aros Centre,Viewfield Road Portree, IV51 9EU
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Low tide 12.00
Saturday 16 September Along the Shoreline*
Raasay
DLT (Submarine) Sandwich – Dulse, Kelp, Mussels Sea Ice Cream –Dulse, Seaweed Sugar Cone, Spirulina
11.30–15.30 Bus tour and oyster shucking demonstration and lunch at The Oyster Shed.
Monday 18 September, 12.30
Beyond The Skye Foreshore
Low tide 12.49
16.00–18.00 Boat trip around Portree Bay and Sound of Raasay with the artists.
Lasagna Foreshore – Kelp and Tidal Commons public workshop with local residents, politicians and guests
Tuesday 19 September The Guga Hunters of Ness by Mike Day* 19.30–20.30 ATLAS Hub Basement, Skye Gathering Hall Portree, Isle of Skye, IV51 9BZ
Tuesday 19 September, 13.00
Low tide 13.31
Filter Feeder Vinaigrette – Mussels
Thursday 21 September Tidalwalk* Wednesday 20 September, 14.00
11.30–15.00 Led by James Merryweather Ord, Loch Eishort
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Low tide 14.09
Tidal Grasses – Sea Spaghetti
Saturday 23 September Skye Live
Isleornsay
12.00–00.00 Get your Tidal Zone Ice cream and listen to your favorite music! Ticket required: skyelive.co.uk
Thursday 21 September, 14.30
Low tide 14.44
Briny Pickings – Cockles
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Friday 22 September, 15.00
Low tide 15.17
Oyster BBQ – Pacific Oysters Tidal Waters – Kelp, Dulse
Saturday 23 September, 15.30
Low tide 15.48
Ceviche Crackers – Scallops, Nori Seaweed Tonics – Kelp and Mike Donald on kelp-infused Isle of Harris Gin
Sunday 24 September, 16.00
Low tide 16.19
Tidal Ice Cream – Kelp
* Booking essential – visit atlasarts.org.uk
Ardvasar
You can also taste Climavore at: 1 The Ardvasar Hotel Newton Bank, Sleat Ardvasar, IV45 8RS 01789 298 682 ardvasarhotel.com
3 Hotel Eilean Iarmain Sleat, IV43 8QR 01471 833 332 eileaniarmain.co.uk
5 Isle of Skye Baking Company The Old Woollen Mill Dunvegan Road Portree, IV51 9HG 01478 612 669 isleofskyebakingco.co.uk
7 Rosedale Hotel * Beaumont Crescent Portree, IV51 9DF 01478 613 131 rosedalehotelskye.co.uk
9 Skye Pie Cafe Culnacnoc, IV51 9JH 01470 562 248 skyepiecafe.co.uk
2 The Black Sheep Food Truck at Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls Viewpoint Lat. 57.610761931110375 Long. -6.172685620668972
4 The Ferry Inn * Uig, IV51 9XP 01470 542 300 theferryinnskye.com
6 Loch Bay Restaurant * 1 Macleods Terrace Stein, IV55 8GA 01470 592 235 lochbay-restaurant.co.uk
8 Scorrybreac Restaurant * 7 Bosville Terrace Portree, IV51 9DG 01478 612 069 scorrybreac.com
10 Raasay House * Isle of Raasay, IV40 8PB 01478 660 300 raasay-house.co.uk
* Reservations required CLIMAVORE is open for further collaborations with local food establishments.
Sources: Sconser Hand-Dived King Scallop (Pecten maximus) Loch Eishort Rope Grown Mussels (Mytilus edulis) Lochnell Common Oysters (Ostrea edulis) The Oyster Shed Pacific Oysters (Magallana gigas) Mara Seaweed (Palmaria palmata, Laminaria digitata, Chondrus crispus) Isle of Harris Gin – Infused with Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima)