The residents of Menie in rural Aberdeenshire have been impacted by Donald Trump’s golf development since 2006. They have collaborated with socially engaged artist, photographer and activist Alicia Bruce for over 16 years. This long-term project includes the acclaimed photobook I Burn But I Am Not Consumed. Portraits of residents are held by National Galleries of Scotland and have been exhibited globally.
Large-scale Dibonds of analogue colour landscape photographs by Alicia, documenting the development’s second course which was advertised as ‘The Greatest 36 Holes’ were first shown as an outdoor exhibition at Format International Photography Festival in 2025, before being brought to the Menie community for the residents to respond to directly; writing, drawing and graffitiing their own words and feelings, turning the panels into large-scale placards. Menie residents David Milne, Michael Forbes, Moira Milne, Rob Menlove, Valerie Banks and supporter Rohan Beyts present new work made this year, adding to this ongoing collaboration. Iconoclastic and unruly, the work refuses polished advocacy in favour of raw testimony, standing as an act of resistance to bullying, capitalism, and the loss of beloved coastal dunes which were a site of special scientific interest.
Winning the Morton Award in 2014 was a pivotal early-career moment. As Scotland’s only significant prize for lens-based media, it gave validation and a platform for making new work. Research started with a residency at the Scottish Centre for Simulation, Forth Valley Hospital, making a film and photographs including of Stan.D.Ardman, a mannequin used to train medical professionals. I had first visited with artist Beverley Hood and was captivated by the tension between real and unreal. A conversation with Leena Nammari, a previous Morton Award winner, pushed the project further; her advice was to travel. I visited simulation centres in New York, Montreal and Quebec City, photographing SimMom, unaware I was in early pregnancy. I then made film Sim Scenario with filmmaker Michael Prince at Forth Valley Hospital.
The project won the RSA Muirhead Purchase Award at the 2015 RSA Annual Exhibition, with Sim Man, NYSim, Bellevue Hospital, New York and Sim Scenario entering the collection. It featured on BBC news and in Ages of Wonder: Scotland’s Art 1540 to Now (RSA, 2017). I extended it to France and Denmark.
