A programme of high profile exhibitions and events to mark the 25th anniversary of An Lanntair Arts centre in Stornoway begins on the 13th February 2010 with Eunadan: Aviary; the over-arching title for an exhibition of works by 4 artists inspired by birds and bird books.

The main gallery features British Birds by Edwyn Collins, the former front-man for the seminal Scottish band Orange Juice, who went on to became a global music star as a solo artist. Almost exactly five years ago in February 2005, Collins suffered a life-threatening double brain haemorrhage. Unable to walk, read or write and inspired by the History of British Birds, he began his own form of rehabilitation by drawing a bird every day. Each is titled and dated and maps the road to his recovery. He is now touring again and has recorded a new album. The drawings were published in Some British Birds published by Morel Books in 2009. The story of his illness and recovery is told in Falling and Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins by his wife Grace Maxwell. Published by Ebury Press also in 2009.

Collins is in good company. For Bird of the Devil, Edward Summerton has over-painted bird-book illustrations creating new species such as the Brief Stint and the Blood Sucking Dunny Gull. These strange, hybrid fowls are reminiscent of the surrealist Max Ernst inflected with the offbeat wit of Ivor Cutler.

Donald Urquhart’s piece Ornithology is also not short on wit. His painted series of 10 small canvases bear the charming and creative phonetic transcriptions of bird calls from a 1920’s handbook. So that, in a sense, you can visualise the sounds.

And Alec Finlay’s Specimen Colony comprises formal diagrammatic layouts of avian plumage which can be folded into bird boxes. The selected species represented in the show are all indigenous to the Islands - Grey Heron, Black Throated Diver, Lapwing, Tern, Crow – with the exception of the Barn Owl, which like these 4 artists, is a visitor.

Eunadan: Aviary is at An Lanntair until 17th April 2010. For more details about An Lanntair please visit their website on www.lanntair.com

An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway:
An Lanntair began in the Stornoway Town Hall in 1985 and moved into its new premises on Kenneth Street in October 2005. It is a multi purpose centre with exhibitions, cinema, live events (music, drama, dance etc), a strong education & outreach programme, bar & restaurant and a shop which stocks local arts & crafts.