Reconfiguring the Historical Ontologies of Northern Communities in the Art of Will Maclean

At the beginning of this paper, we questioned the tenets of a too narrow binary Postcolonialism and the increasing need for a more inclusive paradigm to interrogate peripheral and semi-peripheral Modernisms. We have seen the ways that an anthropological approach can bring us to a renewed awareness of the sensuous – the encounter with An Sùileachan, in particular, is first and foremost a physical one. We have seen that a purely hermeneutic approach can blind us to what is in front of our eyes as we search for inner meaning. However, it is also clear that whilst the sensuous is a starting point, it has to be allied to the interpretation of a code.