Fallow Land

Henna Asikainen, Rudy Kanhye & Lauren La Rose, James Wyness and one artist selected via open call

2024-2025 Agriculture Coastal futures

This new autumn/winter residency programme centres around subjects of farming land, agricultural waste, land ownership and migration linking historical agricultural land around Portobello & Craigentinny, to current farmlands around Jedburgh, Scottish Borders, alongside questions of marine health, ecological change, safe haven and displacement.

We are really thrilled to be able to announce a new autumn/winter residency programme that continues our UnderCurrent programme.

Fallow Land features four new artist residencies each developing new work across a six-month period to April 2025. It comes after a year having to pause our regular artist residency programme. We especially value the support Creative Scotland are now able to provide, to enable this long planned programme to now go ahead.

The project centres around subjects of farming land, agricultural waste, land ownership and migration linking historical agricultural and arable land around Portobello & Craigentinny, to current farmlands around Jedburgh, Scottish Borders, alongside questions of marine health, ecological change, safe haven and displacement.

Fallow land is defined as arable land that is set to rest for a period of time prior to cultivation, or meadows or pastures no longer being used for its usual crop growing for a period of at least one year.

We are working with three invited artists/collaborators – Henna Asikainen, Rudy Kanhye & Lauren La Rose, and James Wyness – with the fourth artist residency ‘Residue’ being selected through an open call process – currently open for proposals (deadline 24 October).

The four residencies will result in a series of public events & exhibitions in the Spring 2025 which introduce our 10th year anniversary celebrations.

A series of field research participatory art events will also take place at a number of the sites across the six-month period working with associated artists and researchers.

Our aim is for these projects to collectively generate a means for change around the climate emergency in relation to the food system, enabling an increased sense of belonging and voice for participants and communities that improves well being, the health of place and learning through artistic practice. We will show the importance of social practice art to create room for dialogue between artists, residents and audiences.

The project is curated by Rosy Naylor, with scientific support from Professor Larissa Naylor for the ‘Residue’ residency (no relation), geomorphologist from University of Glasgow who has a specific knowledge experience relating to Seafield and the legacy of waste for the coastal zone.

About the artists:

Dr Henna Asikainen is a multidisciplinary, socially engaged artist, whose work questions human relationships with nature, and the complex social and ecological issues that emerge. Many of Asikainen’s recent projects have been built around communal experiences within different landscapes and have examined issues including migration, climate justice and unequal access to nature. Her work consistently advocates for a philosophy of friendship and radical hospitality.

Rudy Kanhye and Lauren La Rose have been collaborating for the past five years, shaping their artist duo identity focusing on labour, migration, disability and the environment. Rudy Kanhye, a disabled curator, artist, and researcher from the Global majority, has a unique personal background that deeply influences his work. Born in Dijon, France, to a Portuguese mother and a Mauritian father, Rudy’s childhood dual culture, mixed-race heritage and working class background inspire his practice.

James Wyness is a multi-media artist based in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. He works primarily with sound and lens-based media, producing a range of work from documentary, archival and socially engaged processes to more experimental investigations. His current research converges on a long-term examination of social and environmental aspects of Jedburgh, the river and its basin. Past work has included the sonification of climate change data and the sonic documentation of Seville’s Holy Week Processions.