This Saturday 11 October sees the Bothy Fest Exhibition begin with a preview at Kirkcaldy Galleries from 2-3.30pm. Dunfermline artist Alan Grieve has been collecting stories, stories that would usually be left locked in a person’s mind, or if told, the turns of phrase, often forgotten. Under his custodianship, these stories are woven with additional facts and fiction to take on new significance.

Bothies are shelters to be found in the landscape, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. Alan Grieve has been an aficionado of bothies since his hair was big in his twenties. A collector of stories and objects, Alan has an ear for language and a predilection for the strange. Like a latter day bard, he explores through his work the unfamiliar turn of phrase or gem of information. From processing this raw material, he creates drawings, sculptures and installations that teem with life.

It takes an openness and love of engagement to mine such information from so many people and sources. This is combined with a real craft to edit and construct the new artworks they become. These pieces often employ humour, which, like the best of stories, can fly pretty close to the wind. They also contain a love of the landscape and a passion to gather people’s personal histories. For Grieve, this layer of detail forms ‘the reality of my landscape.’