This residency was jointly commissioned by the Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape Partnership and the Scottish Wildlife Trust to explore the relationship between red deer, land and people in the Coigach & Assynt area of the Scottish Highlands. 

Approaching the project through the lens of weaving, the residency put forward the idea that the various players in the deer-land-people relationship might be understood as different ‘threads’ that interweave to shape the relationship and produce a particular form or configuration. 

Over the course of the residency the various ‘threads’ in the relationship were traced and researched through a combination of community workshops, conversations, literature and fieldwork. The research covered questions ranging from land management and ownership, to biodiversity loss and woodland regeneration; from culling practices and food systems to folklore and place names. 

At its core, the red deer relationship revealed itself as intricate and nuanced, characterised by interconnection and interdependence, but also by tension and divergence. The final exhibition piece draws upon these characteristics, making visible in thread the complexity of the relationship between red deer and the physical and cultural landscape of Coigach and Assynt.