Bonus episode of Testing Grounds: Seasickness/Cur na Mara by Mairi Macleod

In this bonus episode, Glasgow-based Gaelic writer Mairi Macleod reads her short story, Seasickness/Cur na Mara. In 2023, Mairi was commissioned by NAARCA to create a short piece of fiction in both Scots Gaelic and English, and was also granted an 8-week residency at Saari Residence in Finland, where she wrote Seasickness.

Mairi's writing engages with humanity’s relationships with space, place, and the complex thing we call "nature". As a young woman writing in a minority language, she wants to contribute not just to the survival of Gaelic, but to its blossoming and evolution.

In Seasickness, Mairi draws on a traditional Scottish folk tale – the Selkie wife – and updates it for an age of climate crisis.

TESTING GROUNDS is available on the last Friday of each month, episode 5 will come from Cove Park in Scotland. To subscribe and listen, visit naarca.art/testing-grounds-podcast/ or search for “Testing Grounds” in your favourite podcast app.

TESTING GROUNDS is produced and edited by Katie Revell and includes original music by Loris S. Sarid and artwork by Jagoda Sadowska.

ABOUT NAARCA

NAARCA is a collaboration between seven artists’ residencies: Cove Park (Scotland), Saari Residence (Finland), Artica Svalbard (Norway), Art Hub Copenhagen (Denmark), Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland) and Narsaq International Research Station (Greenland). We are working together to develop, test and communicate new ways of living that are ecologically, socially, mentally and financially sustainable. We believe that artists’ residencies are exceptional institutions within the arts sector: safe environments for experimentation, where private, professional and public life intertwine. Learn more at naarca.art