Aros Park, Isle of Mull, Scotland
Permanent sculptural installation, 2026–2033
Commissioned by An Tobar and Mull Theatre as part of Invasive Species, an immersive audio walk created by Fast Familiar in collaboration with Play:Vienna.
Spectrum of Belonging is a series of seven permanent sculptures, created for Aros Park on the Isle of Mull. Developed in collaboration with landscape architect, artist and writer Ross Mclean through The Surface Agency, the work explores colour as a way of noticing place.
Drawing on ecological research, each sculpture represents one of Mull's ecosystems – Aros Park, moorland, deciduous woodland, riparian, machair, farmland and coastline. The sculptures translate these ecosystems into sequences of colour derived from plants, animals, fungi and lichens found within each habitat.
The project began with a simple question: what does it mean to belong?
On an island shaped by volcanic origins, glaciation, migration and centuries of human activity, ideas of native, non-native and invasive species become increasingly complex. Species arrive, disappear, adapt and form new relationships over time. Spectrum of Belonging considers the idea of belonging as something continually negotiated through ecological relationships and environmental change.
Each sculpture is constructed from a solid oak trunk topped with stacked circular discs. The oak itself originates from a living tree, while every colour corresponds to a species within the surrounding ecosystem. Together they create abstract ecological portraits that encourage visitors to move between sculpture and landscape, recognising colours, patterns and relationships that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Installed throughout Aros Park alongside the Invasive Species audio walk, the sculptures invite visitors to experience the woodland through slow observation, curiosity and attention. They are intended not simply as markers within the landscape, but as prompts to reconsider how we perceive ecological communities and our place within them.
The installation is accompanied by wayfinding markers inspired by the Slender Scotch Burnet moth, one of Scotland's rarest endemic insects, whose survival on Mull is increasingly threatened by ecological change.