A MUCH-anticipated new exhibition exploring the concept of home opens on Friday at Strathnaver museum, Bettyhill.
Calligrapher, book artist and traditional letterpress printmaker Fiona Dempster, who lives in Maleny, Queensland. is behind the new exhibition, called “Hame”.
Fiona and her husband Barry Smith, a sculptor and metalworker, are frequent visitors to the north coast and usually visit the area in August and September each year.
Barry created an exhibition at Strathnaver Museum in September 2023 called Betrayal and Loss after being inspired by the work of 18th century author Donald Macleod whose book Gloomy Memories is a personal account of the Highland Clearances.
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Fiona Mackenzie, the museum’s development manager, said: “Fiona was also inspired by the story of the Highland Clearances and the impact it had on those affected.”
In Hame, Fiona explores what it means to have a home, to lose a home and to recreate a home through artists’ books and small sculptural pieces.
She said: “The Highland Clearances forcibly, and forcefully, removed people from their homes.
“I have often wondered how the women who were forced to leave their homes found ways to make new ones.
“How did they put their family’s homes back together, in a different place, in different ways? How difficult was it for them to create a new home? What fragments of their past home held memories that could help forge a new one and what did it take to build home anew?
“As a person in the 21st century who is privileged to move between two homes, both vastly different from each other, I regularly ponder what home means.
“I look for similarities, threads of connection between the two, and I wonder.”
All are welcome to the launch event at the museum’s annex at 7pm. Fiona will be available to talk about her work and wine and nibbles will be on offer. The exhibition runs until September 28.
