Portrait of John Londragan

Unearthed, made for Nuart Aberdeen 2019, is based on the story of John Londragan, the first Aberdonian to join the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The composition draws on an archival photograph showing Londragan alongside American brigadier Peter Frye and two Spanish children, linking his personal history to the wider solidarity Aberdeen dockworkers showed Spanish seamen during their 1936 strike. Carved in bas-relief into a gable behind Union Square, near the River Dee and the city's harbour, the work returns this history of labour, anti-fascism and internationalism to the part of Aberdeen it came from.