Quern buoy - Polyurethane foam, rubber and lead 50cm x 50cm
Quern Buoy explores depth and topography of Loch leum nam Bradh (loch of the dashing of the querns)
I took various depth soundings using a primitive lead lining technique, which was made using a buoy in the form of a foam and rubber casting of a quern fragment found in Eiliseadar (Ellishadder), a weight in the form of a speculative model of the Loch cast in lead and 150 m of cord
Discovering the depth of the loch is interesting in relation to perception and how we perceive bodies of water. As an unfamiliar landscape it is very difficult to imagine how deep the loch is and how the loch bed may look and so we look to surrounding topography and water colour etc.
The topography is important as the steep banks would have been part of the reason the loch was chosen for the destruction of the querns. To this day the Loch was thought to be deep, possibly from the association of its history, and that the factors chose to use the loch in the first place, making the retrieval of the querns impossible.
There could be an interesting opportunity to further this enquiry using bathymetric surveying techniques to explore the lochs form and depth to give a precise representation of the body of water and the dark story held within it.
