still from Margaret Tait Aerial, 1974 © estate of the artist

The display on the top floor of the gallery includes work from the Pier Art Centre’s Collection by the pioneering Orcadian film-maker and poet Margaret Tait (1918-1999), alongside works by Katy Dove (1970-2015), and a recent commission by Rosalind Nashashibi (b. 1973).

It is this most recent acquisition which has suggested a new avenue for exploration - specifically, how the Pier Arts Centre can continue to collect artists’ films that reflect the invention and beauty inherent in the work of Margaret Tait, and that link to the Modernist concerns of the collection – including work by Margaret Mellis (1914-2009) and Winifred Nicholson (1893-1981), both featured in this current display.