Navigation Plaque (2023) collates wayfinding diagrams and coastal viewpoints specific to a sailing expedition from Berneray to St Kilda as part of an artist residency titled Island Going in 2019. The piece draws on the design of sea charts, tracking data and interstellar expedition plaques (such as Nasa’s Pioneer plaques). The tracking data was collated from the Island Going residency sailboat’s OpenCPN on-board navigation software.

Navigation Plaque is made from laser etched mild steel.

This work was exhibited as part of group show Aig Muir, At Sea in An Lanntair Gallery, Stornoway in December 2023.

In response to a 2019 artist residency to the island of St Kilda, five artists (Bethany Rigby, Beatrice Alvestad Lopez, Dan Shay, Alasdair Asmussen Doyle, Rachael Louise Bailey) presented works in An Lanntair gallery, in Stornoway, Outer Hebrides.
"At Sea" holds the hybrid meanings of being on a vessel out of sight of land, and of experiencing a state of confusion or mentally adrift.
In July 2019, five artists undertook a sailing expedition heading west from Berneray to the remote islands of St Kilda. The residency (titled Island Going) presented an embodied invitation into sea and island ecologies, atmospheres and terrains, and stretched across the longest days of the year, 6 of which were spent at sea, followed by four on land.
Almost five years later, the artists return with works that stem directly from their shared experience at sea. Using the land and seascapes as a research arena, the artists approach topographies of remoteness, liquidity, navigation, migration, isolation and communication.
All of the works exhibited use materials gathered during the 2019 expedition, including wool, photographs, film and water. This exhibition presents the opportunity to share, question, learn, remember, wonder and reflect.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/36006