Site specific installation. Exhibited at Under the Full Moon of Late Summer at Mote102, Oct-Nov 2025, featuring work by Emma Macleod and Emily Randall. (Invited artists as part of Mote102 selected programme).

These works depict pale human limbs emerging from moss as though frozen mid-dance or ritual.  They nod to Scottish forest folklore - specifically the Ghillie Dhu and Daoine Sìthe, guardians and spirits of the land.  Playful yet ominous, their dance becomes a subtle omen: a folkloric warning of environmental destruction.  While making this work I have been reflecting on how, when we leave this world, our bodies return to the land - we continue to form part of the ecosystem and the mythologies that inhabit it.  

Images by Julie Howden

Rituals of Moss

Indoor art installation display with moss, soil, and plant sculptures, surrounded by red leaves on a wooden floor, in front of a large window.
A surreal sculpture of a humanoid figure made from moss with human arms protruding from it, positioned on a stone surface.
A small figure with human arms is emerging from a large, bushy, green mossy mound on a stone surface in a garden setting with plants and rocks around.
Close-up of a tiny human figurine covered in moss, giving the illusion of a miniature person climbing or hanging from the plant.
A small plant covered in dense moss and lichen with tiny, pink toy arms attached, positioned on a rock with blurred background.
small limbs emerging from dark soil
A pink hand holding a stick in a mound of dark soil.
Close-up of a moss mound with a small, pink polymer clay arm attached to it.
A moss mound with a small, disembodied human arm and hand extending from the side and reaching out.
A small, nude doll's legs and feet sticking out of a pile of moss or dried plants, with some blurred plant stems in the foreground.
A moss mound with a tiny, realistic-looking sculpted polymer clay arm and hand attached to it.
A small hand sculpture emerging from the soil, holding a wilted red rose.
A small sprout emerging from dark soil with a white and pink root tip, attached to a wheat stalk.
A doll's body lying on soil, covered with moss and polymer clay sculptured fungi emerging from it's limbs
A small doll lying on dirt, partially covered by a moss, with polymer clay sculpted arms and legs extending outward, and decorated with blue and orange fungi
Close-up of pink earthworms in dark soil surrounded by green moss.
A close-up of a moss humanoid with sculpted polymer clay arms attached to it.
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