Me and My Plastic: Ghillie Dhu

Wearable art for performative walk, non-recycable plastic, Harris Tweed Suit (work in progress), 2023

Wearable artwork, walking performance and mapping project. The work involves a 198 mile, multi-day performative walk across Scotland from Broughty Ferry to the wood at Gairloch. I will be wearing a vintage Harris Tweed suit that is currently been transformed into a wearable artwork/”Ghille Suit” created from a year’s worth of his collected non-recyclable, single-use plastic. This performance explores issues surrounding environmental sustainability; the material reality of everyday; discarded plastic; durational making/walking; performance art; and public engagement. The performance will as well involve aspects of augmented reality, digital mapping, and live streaming. I plan to embark on this walking performance in July of 2024. The word “Ghille” derives from the mythical figure from Scottish folklore of "Ghillie Dhu”. From Wikipedia:

In Scottish folklore the Ghillie Dhu or Gille Dubh (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈkʲiʎə ˈt̪u]) was a solitary male fairy. He was kindly and reticent, yet sometimes wild in character. He had a gentle devotion to children. Dark-haired and clothed in leaves and moss, he lived in a birch wood within the Gairloch and Loch a Druing area of the north-west Highlands of Scotland.”