Where are the birds taking me?
This exhibition features poems written by Ken Cockburn when he was Wigtown Book Festival’s Spring Fling writer in residence. The prints were then created by artist Lisa Hooper in response, and both featured in Wigtown Book Festival’s online festival in October 2020.
All these birds have been present in Dumfries and Galloway, though corncrakes are now absent, and choughs the rarest of visitors. Corncrakes, like most of the other birds, remain present as place-names, even if the languages spoken by those who coined these names are now also absent or rare. For example, Drumatrane and Cairnywellan (both from Gaelic) mean ridge of the corncrake and rock of the gulls, while Cronkley (from Old English) is the heron's clearing, and Penfran Burn (Old Welsh) flows down the raven's hill.
The prints are in editions of 10 and will be available for sale by Lisa Hooper from 6 March.
In partnership with Wigtown Book Festival
