by Steve Ely (Author), Michael Faint (Photographer)
Orasaigh is a collaboration between poet Steve Ely and photographer Michael Faint, inspired by the landscape around the tidal island of Orasaigh, located on the coast of South Uist at Boisdale.
Ely's visionary poem, whilst always remaining anchored in the island, roams widely, exploring a range of themes related to Uist and the wider world - sea level rise, the crisis of the 'sixth extinction', history, culture, politics, conflict, and class. Faint's powerful photographs vividly capture the spirit of the place, creating an independent yet complementary subjectivity.
The work of the two artists combines and interacts to produce a uniquely evocative response to a rich and resonant landscape in a work that affirms the vitality and resilience of the human spirit, with the island itself becoming a dual symbol of precarity and hope in the crisis of the Anthropocene.