Life on the Fife coast in East Scotland is, and always has been, fuelled by shifting boundary lines –an ever-moving space infused by tides and weather. In the past, many peoplewere forced to choose a life at sea or a life on, or even within, the land. Here in Burntisland and the surrounding towns and villages, many chose between rock or salt –farming or mining (for coal or oil shale); fishing or shipbuilding.

Elspeth Knight (mixed media painter) recently moved to Burntisland, where Larissa Reid (poet) has lived for over five years. The pair originally met during their school days further round the Fife coast in St. Andrews. In their collaborative project, ROCK | SALT, they explore the local heritage through poetry combined with contemporary mixed media artwork. Their aim is to examine relationships in liminal spaces; how romantic relationships might weather the storms, how people build relationships with the land and sea through work and play, how blue and green and underground spaces feed into individual and collective psychologies.

Larissa has written 21 poems, capturing the voices of some of those who might have lived along the coast of South Fife over the past 200 years. Elspeth has taken each poem as inspiration for a series of mixed media 2D and 3D artworks; each incorporates places, textures, shapes and patterns from the surroundings of Burntisland and the Firth of Forth. ROCK|SALT will culminate in a 4-week exhibition at Glisk Gallery, Burntisland, from 28th October to 20th November 2022. The exhibition is open weekends, Fri-Sun, 11am-5pm, and by appointment outwith these times (please call: 07367 097446)