Black Box Projects, London

This piece was exhibited in Steve Macleod's Nil exhibition at Fitzrovia Chapel, London 2018, the centenary of the end of the First World War. Images below. 

Nil by Steve Macleod is a series of work made between 1992-2005 and was inspired by the area of the Scottish Highlands where Macleod grew up.

The First World War devastated many Highland rural villages to such an extent that in the post-war census, the return of many soldiers was listed as NIL. With the loss of so many able-bodied young♊ men, rural communities diminished, and people slowly drifted away from their lands, rural industry and crafts. Whole communities disappeared, and places became forgotten – this became known as the third clearance. 

 

Records show that 26.4% of enlisted Scots died compared to 11.8% of the po💜pulation in other areas of the UK. The population of Scotland at the time was 10% of the total UK population yet the statistic accounted for a fifth of Britain’s war dead, estimated at 147,609 Scots who were killed in active service. 

In 1992 Macleod beg♌an creating a photographic response to these losses; the traces of abandoned communities in the Highland landscape. Visiting old ghosts, he has traced dilapidated evidence of forgotten villages and ways of life. 

 

Inspired by the writings of author Neil Gunn he travelled to and met with people now living in the landscape,ཧ people who may have no historical connection yet embrace a beautifully unforgiving environment. He engaged with current residents in a collaborative approach to the photographic works. Creating silver gelatin prints he obliterated the image with black oil stick, inviting people to uncover the image below with their hands, in turn placing their own identity on the landscape and resurrecting aꦿ connection that commemorates the past yet connects us with the present.