VACMA Spotlight: Sarah Hornby
Sarah Hornby, a previous recipient of VACMA, reflects on her project supported by the bursary.
Sarah Hornby was one of our successful applicants for the Autumn 2024/25 round of Visual Artists and Craft Makers Awards (VACMA).
Sarah is an interdisciplinary queer artist and hereditary practicing witch from Shetland. Her work mainly undertakes practice-based research and is a fusion of ancient mysticism and contemporary expression, exploring the liminal spaces where art and magic intersect.
In this blog, she shares a reflection on her project supported by the bursary. She investigated illustration thoroughly as a whole subject, exploring its rich potential as a storytelling medium, with a focus on traditional materials such as paper, ink, watercolour, coloured pencils and marker pens.
The aim of her project was to create a series of visual narratives that highlight the beauty and power of nature, as interpreted through the Lense of folklore.
Research
Shetland is rich with folklore and it was a huge part of the islands’ culture in pre-modern times. Part of the Kingdom of Norway from the 10th to the 15th century, Shetland’s folklore has Scandinavian roots and often inhabits similar creatures. The Shetland Islands are an archipelago of around 100 islands. Because of this so much of our folklore revolves around the sea.
“Shetland is a land of hard, unyielding rocks largely smothered by peat, and agriculture is restricted to the narrow strip of green that lies between the steep hills and the sea.” James R Nicolson, Shetland Folklore (p.13)
For many generations Shetlander’s have relied on the sea for income and food. Death by drowning was a common occurrence. Life on the island was quite harsh and folk were aware of the hostility of the natural forces that had power over the physical realm. These powerful forces were feared and seen as the work of witches, selkies, trows, Finn folk, giants, ghosts, and Njuggles and fairies. It was quite common for people to suspect the work of witchcraft was behind a ship sinking as folk believed witches could control the sea and the winds. Or if milk curdled and went bad, this could mean someone had upset a witch.
Scalloway castle and the witches
Scalloway castle was built in 1600 for Sir Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney and Lord of Shetland, and was built by the blood sweat and tears of the common people working under his rule. Patrick Stewart wasn’t particularly against witches himself – although he was still a harsh ruler – however, in the 17th century, the Scalloway Castle did hold witch trials in its great hall.
Witches and wizards are predominant in Shetland folklore and in Shetland’s history. They were thought to be in alliance with Satan and were thought to bring trouble to good god-fearing people. In Norse times, being accused of witchcraft was a common occurrence but could be easily evaded if you could find five people who could swear your innocence (a process known as the Saxter Aith). The Christian zealots of the post-reformation period were reluctant to let any suspect escape.
Seven women and one man were convicted of witchcraft and wizardry and were hung and burnt on Berry hill (now thought of as Gallow hill) overlooking the Scalloway castle during the 17th and 18th century.
The case of Marion Pardon
The most well documented case is that of Marion Pardon, thought to be a witch from Hillswick.
It was said she could curse illness and death upon a person. She was convicted of several charges – one of the most serious being that she had turned herself into a pellack whale, and coming under a fishing boat, she upset it causing four men to drowned. She was convicted of this charge by the test known as the law of the bier, for being commanded to lay hands on two of the dead bodies, one of them bled at the ‘craigbane’ and the other in the head and fingers. If they bled that would mean she was guilty.
Poor Marion was pronounced guilty and was hung and burned on Berry hill (Gallow hill) in 1644 under the witchcraft art of 1563.
Lunna Kirk
There’s an old ghost tale about Lunna kirk. As the tale goes, Wille O’ Setter had just been engaged to the bonniest lass in the whole district. Him and his best man were on their way to the Manse to inform the minister so that the couple could be married the following Sunday.
They came across an unearthed skull in the kirkyard on the way. Wille picked up the skull and addressed it, “if du haed ha’ been livin’ du cood ha’ come tae my weddin’”. His best man disapproved of his lack of respect for the dead, but nonetheless the couple were married.
They were celebrating when a strange man at the door asked to speak with the groom. The Stranger led him down an unfamiliar path to a house Wille had never seen before. When inside, Wille sat by the fire as the stranger spoke of various things.
When Wille declared that he must return to his wife, the Stranger made a mark on a candle and proclaimed Wille could leave when the candle burned to the mark. To Wille’s horror, he found that an old millstone was suspended above his head. The Stranger proclaimed that as Wille didn’t hurt him that night in the kirkyard, then he would be safe while he was sitting there. It then dawned on Wille who he was speaking to.
When the candle burned down willie rushed back to the house where the wedding reception was being held. To his surprise, there was no wedding company there, only an elderly lady sweeping up the fire ash. He asked where the wedding company was, and she relied there had been no wedding there in her lifetime – although her grandmother used to tell of a wedding that had taken place in the house long ago when the bridegroom had gone outside to speak to someone and had never been seen again. Upon realising he had been gone over 100 years, Wille turned to a pile of dust.
Reflection
Having spent the last 5 months reading, researching, experimenting and creating a body of work that I present to now, I have realised so many things and learned so much more of my Shetland heritage and history.
So much of the Shetland witches within the folklore books have taken direct inspiration from some of the real victims of the time who were executed for crimes of witchcraft, and people believed witches and other mythical beings controlled the tides. Often people feared the powers of the natural world as they were more superstitious and therefore, they respected nature out of fear. A lot of the selkie tales were similar in the regard that people believed selkies had magical properties and could control the tides.
A reoccurring factor I have noticed in my research was a sexist undertone to all the tales – a lense of villainising women as an evil witch or sexualising them as beautiful naked women when selkies are in their human form. There’s an unavoidable feel of what life would have been like back then, especially as a woman. Although folk in the modern world may not respect the powers of the natural world the same, at least there is more respect for women in this day and age.
From my experimental research, I found a liking for coloured pencil and pen (markers, primarily) and I really enjoyed working on the ‘May Flooer Faire’ drawing. I wish I had explored more mixed media pieces earlier on as I found mixing some of my favourite media together very satisfying. I set out in this project with an aim to create a series of visual narratives that highlight the beauty and power of nature, as interpreted through the Lense of folklore. I feel confident in saying I have achieved what I set out to achieve.
In the future I would love to experiment more with print and acid plate etching where possible as I feel this media would bode well with my own sketchy illustrative style. I have had so much fun on this project and am planning to keep working on folklore-based work for the time being. I also plan on posting some of the work I created in this project on my Instagram art account (@lala.eala_) in hopes to share it digitally with people.
The Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards (VACMA) are a programme of small grant schemes delivered in partnership with a range of local authorities and art organisations across Scotland. The schemes are managed locally by these partners. VACMA offers fixed bursaries of £500 and £1,000. The purpose of these bursaries is to support visual artists and craft makers in their creative and professional development.
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