Conversing Building: Incredible Journeys X Linda Mallett

In October, as the Wild Goose Festival becomes a key focus, the Stove Cafe includes an exhibition from Solway Firth Partnership alongside a collection of artworks by artist Linda Mallett.

While the Solway Firth Partnership was researching where the buoyant plastics on the Scottish Solway shore originate and the onward journey they make, they realised that the routes taken by plastic and wildlife often follows close parallels. Ocean currents and prevailing winds directly affect the routes taken by migrating wildlife and floating litter.

An exhibition that compares and contrasts the routes taken willhighlight:

• Variety of wildlife migration to and from ScottishSolway shore
• Remarkable parallel of routes by wildlife and wildlife
• Plastic pollution is a global issue
• Ocean currents assist the migration of some creatures (European eel)
• Prevailing winds assist the migration of many creatures (barnacle goose / painted lady butterfly) and directly affects floating litter driving it into SW facing bays and beaches
• Plastic pollution comes to the Solway from local sources (sparling) with comparatively rare items traced to remote locations
• Solutions to the problem must contain both better local waste management, including on ships and fishing vessels, as well as are duction of global plastic production.

Barnacle goose (migrates to Svalbard -research and computer models suggest plastics entering the Solway such as abottle will drift towards Svalbard – although most will be stranded along theScottish or Norwegian coast long before reaching Svalbard).

Painted lady butterfly (migrates from and to North Africa and Southern Europe aided by wind –buoyant plastics such as chocolate powder container are driven by wind andwaves from Spain and tropical waters with common goose barnacles attached).

Alongside the display from the Solway Firth Partnership are included a number of works by local artist Linda Mallett, created using found beach plastics, seaweed and cordage that washes up on her local beaches in Kirkcudbrightshire.