Crichton Carbon Centre's
Peatland Connections
Kerry Morrison | Once Upon a Peatland… May 2023 | Installation of Conversation Pieces | The Byre, Corriedoo Forest, Galloway.
Taking inspiration from CCC, Once Upon a Peatland… is an overture to peatland restoration, carbon capture, eroded peat carbon emissions, water quality, peat formation, deep time, and land use.
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Created from materials used in peatland restoration along with raw degraded peat from drainage ditches; a peat core; water samples; graphite rubbings; material collected from degraded peatland sites; text; video; and garments, Once Upon Peatland integrated ecological practice and research, art, and conversations.
 Bottles of water samples hang suspended from a frame.Bottles of water samples hang suspended from a frame. |  Bottles of water samples hang suspended from a frame.Bottles of water samples hang suspended from a frame. |  Bottles of water samples hang suspended from a frame.Bottles of water samples hang suspended from a frame. |
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 Kerry Morrison's Once Upon A Peatland exhibitionKerry Morrison's Once Upon A Peatland exhibition |  Frocks and wellies marked by peatlands.Frocks and wellies marked by peatlands. |  A t-shirt reading Spruce Plucker from the 'spruce plucking championships'A t-shirt reading Spruce Plucker from the 'spruce plucking championships' |
 Kerry steps into an artist representation of a peatland gully.Kerry steps into an artist representation of a peatland gully. |  Two gutters, one with sphagnum and one without, demonstrate how water moves through peatlands.Two gutters, one with sphagnum and one without, demonstrate how water moves through peatlands. |  Water collects in buckets beneath gutters demonstrating how water moves through healthy and unhealthWater collects in buckets beneath gutters demonstrating how water moves through healthy and unhealthy peat. |
 Deep Peat shadows - from the annotated peat core at the Archaeology Fair.Deep Peat shadows - from the annotated peat core at the Archaeology Fair. |  A mini version of a digger restoring a peatland.A mini version of a digger restoring a peatland. |  Restoration items.Restoration items. |
 Bog wood found by CCC team member.Bog wood found by CCC team member. |  A peat core, 4.5 meters long.A peat core, 4.5 meters long. |
Peatland Restoration is extremely challenging and complex work that happens in remote, exposed, upland landscapes. How and why we restore is not widely known about. The erosion of degraded peatlands and the restoration work goes largely unseen. Recognising the complexities connected to peat and peatlands, their remoteness, and how people connect to them, or are disconnected from them, Once Upon a Peatland presented a series of interconnected pieces (vignettes) capturing restoration actions and research to spark conversations about peatland encounters and peatland restoration. The full CCC team participated in the exhibition, sharing their knowledge and experience with visitors, who in turn shared their knowledge, experiences, and curiosity. Collectively new narratives were created and connections made.
Discussing
Talking
Chatting
Exchanging
Communicating
Listening
Sharing
CONNECTING Peatlands
encounters
stories
anecdotes
accounts
memories
descriptions
thinking
Connections
Kerry took up the part time post of Peatland Connections in March 2022. Being part of the CCC team deepened Kerry’s awareness of peatland restoration in a way that she believes can only come about through being embedded in an environmental organisation. Being the Peatland Connections Project Officer generated an unplanned outcome: becoming an embedded artist at CCC.