This website uses cookies

We use cookies to personalize content and ads, and to analyze our traffic and improve our service.

Statistic cookies help us understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.

Fraser MacBeath

Mar gum biodh an teine air do chraiceann (As if the fire were on your skin)

Stools sit in the foreground of a video projection in a small viewing room

Fraser MacBeath is an audio-visual artist from the Isle of Lewis. Using the mediums of sound, film, and installation, Fraser creates work that combines elements of sound art and ambient music with abstract film and physical environments.

His work focuses on themes of memory, culture, sociological issues, and the relationship between tradition and modernity. MacBeath’s work often centres around his home in the Outer Hebrides and attempts to contemporise the often archaic view of rural Scotland.

This work is a reflection on what it means to live a rural existence - a life characterised by a deep bond with nature; an endless balancing act between appreciating its beauty and bounty, and sheltering from its ambivalent brutality. For most of human history this relationship was mediated by the campfire, the centre of this piece, as it was the traditional centre of rural life. Warm by the fire, we were given the respite to reflect on our relationship with nature and each other, and from this all manner of prose, poetry, song, and comfort emerged. In Scotland, where so much of our cultural output and history speaks to an embodiment of nature, one could argue that it was by the fire that we found our identity.

When populations are sparse and nature unforgiving, these bonds of community become vital for survival. But the fire also gave rise to something greater than survival - we started to dream. This piece invites the spectator to sit by the campfire and experience these dreams again. To feel that same reverence for nature embodied by our oral tradition, that our rural ancestors would have felt time and again, here in the warm glow of life itself.


Click "Full Information" for artwork and archive credits.

Mar gum biodh an teine air do chairceann (As if the fire were on your skin)

Creator Fraser MacBeath
Date 2023

Credits

Video editing by Fraser MacBeath and Florence Richardson
With thanks to Callum A Macleod, Scott Jones, Deljeem Rai and Dijals Rai

School of Scottish Studies Archives Citations

Luadhadh ann an Uibhist a Deas / Cloth Waulking in South Uist, ref: VA1970.01 (03:00-05:00) and (12:20-15:00)

Tha Fadachd Orm Fhìn a Rìgh, Christine Shaw, (contributor), Morag MacLeod, (fieldworker), ref: SA1973.050

Stanley Robertson talks about what he played at as a child, Stanley Robertson (contributor), Barbara McDermitt, (fieldworker), ref: SA1980.057

Shetland Reel Dancing in Crofthouse, Peter Cooke, (fieldworker), F.E.Kent, (camerawork), ref: VA1971.006

Jeannie Robertson in her home, Jeannie Robertson, (contributor), Hamish Henderson, (fieldworker), F.E.Kent, (camerawork), ref: VA1971.010

Tiree Baptism, Eric Cregeen, (fieldworker), F.E. Kent, (Camerawork), ref: VA1976.001

Stanley Robertson, Old Road, Stanley Robertson, (contributor), Barbara McDermitt, (fieldworker), refs: VA1987.33 and VA1987.33b

Crofting, Jeannie Gibson, (contributor), Mairi McArthur, (fieldworker), Ian MacKenzie, (camerawork), ref: VA1989.021

Recording of the start of the Langholm Common Riding, Unknown Multiple, (contributors), Emily Lyle, (fieldworkers), ref: SA1977.204.A1

Cadal Cuain, Mary Ann Kennedy, (contributor), Thomas Daun, (fieldworker), ref: SA1985.85.A2

Examples of cant words, Lucy Stewart, (contributor), Hamish Henderson (fieldworker), ref: SA1955.070

Pub conversation overwhelms attempts to do an interview, Unknown, (contributor), Calum Iain Maclean, (fieldworker), ref: SA1956.135

The Rosary is recited followed by Benediction, Fr Calum MacLellan, (contributor), Mary MacDonald, (fieldworker), ref: SA1970.159

The company discuss and recite rhymes, Mary Morrison, (contributor), Mary MacDonald, (fieldworker), ref: SA1970.163

Three 6/8 marches played by a pipe band, Unknown, (contributor), Ailie Munro, (fieldworker), ref: SA1972.118

Meda's Song, Unknown, (contributor), Hamish Henderson, (fieldworker), ref: SA1987.106

Reflections on nature and spirituality, Janet Robertson, (contributor), Barbara MacDermitt, (fieldworker), ref: SA1981.086

Norman Stewart talks about his interest in folk music and the influences that inspired him, Norman Stewart, (contributor), Hamish Henderson, (fieldworker), ref: SA1968.321

Mist Covered Mountains, Calum Ruadh, (contributor), Barbara Dickson, Thorkild Knudsen, (fieldworkers), ref: SA1968.305.6

A selection of bird-call imitations, Unknown, (contributor) Hamish Henderson, (fieldworker), ref: SA1964.147

Kail and Knoggit Corn, Bob Lawrence Duncan, (contributor), Elizabeth Sinclair, (fieldworker), ref: SA1960.064

Norseman's Home, Unknown, (contributor), Peter Cooke, (fieldworker), ref: SA1982.010.011

Flower of Scotland, Unknown, (contributor), Peter Cooke, (fieldworker), ref: SA1982.010.011

Adhradh Teaghlaich, Unknown, John Smith, (contributor), Thorkild Knudsen, Fred Kent, (fieldworkers), ref: SA1964.111

Title: Mar gum biodh an teine air do chairceann (As if the fire were on your skin)
Creator Fraser MacBeath
Date 2023
Duration 13 minutes