Artist In Residence Claudia Zeiske

Artist in Residence Claudia Zeiske

Black and white image of lady in victorian dress on a beach, next to a coloured image with a woman in red jacket.

Feral Outdoor Art Residency

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.

Exhibition Opening Hours 

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 1pm – 4pm  
Wednesday: 1.30pm – 4.30pm  
Saturday: 10.30am – 4pm