FERAL OUTDOOR ARTS RESIDENCY WITH SOUTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL - CLAUDIA ZEISKE
Background
This project is supported through a programme of work delivered by Feral and funded by Creative Scotland. Supported by South Ayrshire Council. Feral’s outdoor arts residency programme is aimed at Scotland based artists interested in developing outdoor or site-specific performance projects responding to landscape.
2026 Recipient- CLAUDIA ZEISKE
Rediscovering the legacy of Girvan Geologist Elizabeth Gray in the era of the ‘Plastocene’
Many Shades of Gray takes place along the Carrick coast inspired by geologist Elizabeth Anderson Gray (1831–1924). Working at a time when women were excluded from scientific societies, Gray spent decades walking these shores in long dress attire, collecting fossils that helped shape understanding of the region’s 450-million-year-old strata. Much of her contribution remained overshadowed in her lifetime.
Walking in her footsteps, artist Claudia Zeiske follows Elizabeth Gray’s spirit of fieldwork — though her long skirt is made of Gore-Tex rather than Victorian cloth. Instead of searching for ancient fossils, Claudia is gathering what lies at our feet now next to stones of different shades of grey: colourful remnants of fossil-fuel culture. Materials that may one day form a new geological layer — the trace of our own age, a possible “Plastocene”**
By placing Gray’s deep-time discoveries alongside the debris of today, the project asks what stories will our materials tell in many years to come?
This project is supported through a programme of work delivered by Feral and funded by Creative Scotland. Supported by South Ayrshire Council. Feral’s outdoor arts residency programme is aimed at Scotland based artists interested in developing outdoor or site-specific performance projects responding to landscape.
**The “Plastocene” (or Plasticene) is a proposed, informal geological term for a new, current epoch characterized by the widespread, enduring pollution of plastic in the environment. Coined in the 2010s, it marks a time where plastic waste becomes a permanent feature in Earth’s sedimentary layers, ecosystems, and new types of rocks, such as plastiglomerates.
The McKechnie Institute, 40 Dalrymple Street, Girvan KA26 9AE
Exhibition Opening Hours
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 1pm – 4pm
Wednesday: 1.30pm – 4.30pm
Saturday: 10.30am – 4pm
FREE ACTIVITIES & WORKSHOPS
Please note booking may be required for some of these events.
Friday 17 April 2026
6pm – 7pm: Stones, stories and the many layers of Gray with Claudia Zeiske
Saturday 18 April 2026
10am – 11.30am: Future Fossils Walk: Along the Girvan coast with Claudia Zeiske
11.45am – 12.15pm: Stone identification session with Geologist Nick May
12.15pm – 1.15pm: Modern fossil making at The McKechnie Institute
12.15pm – 1.15pm: Stone Drawing with Claudia Zeiske
2pm – 3.30pm: Illustrated Talk: Ayrshire Coast and other long-distance walking with Claudia Zeiske
ABOUT CLAUDIA ZEISKE
Through deep looking, listening and mapping, I seek to enrich places locally while remaining connected to the wider world. My work is grounded in the understanding that social and environmental emergencies are inextricably intertwined. I am interested in how place, people and the ways we live and work together shape one another. Through walking, community mapping, cooking, floristry and other cultural practices, I co-create ideas and actions that help places and communities navigate change.
As the founding Director of Deveron Projects in Huntly, I worked with over 100 artists from around the world. It was the best possible art school — learning directly from artists while embedding creative work in the everyday life of a place. That experience continues to inform my own place-based artistic practice.
Website: Claudia Zeiske