Lar MacGregor

Sculpture and Installation

Lar MacGregor has a passion for sustainability and circular economies, using regenerative materials such as wood, or waste plastics, scrapped metals, and found objects, to create her sculptural works. The importance of provenance and practicality go hand-in-hand, and the majority of her material is sourced from nearby her workshop. MacGregor can trace the wood she uses back to the stump, the copper back to the skip or the scrapyard, and the plastics to the hedgerows where she gathers them from the roadside. Through this practice, her works explore themes around place-making, sustainability and ecology.

“My passion for sustainability and circular economies is a core part of my practice. As artists we are in a
unique position to use our art to educate, to bring people together through creative engagement.”

Using found copper and plastic bags allows MacGregor to be sustainable in her practice whilst also whilst also relating to her immediate personal environment and story.

“I can’t say it’s easy to be sustainable. I can’t say that I am not tempted by chemical patinas and brand new
shiny things…but rummaging in the scrapyard and gathering litter whilst I walk, offers me a whole different
level of inner peace and I realised a while ago that being authentic in my art was only possible, if I am
to be authentic in my life.”

Plastics still show the strongest production growth of all bulk materials, and are already responsible for a substantial amount of greenhouse gasses. In an attempt to understand terminology around emission mitigating pathways in ‘big business’, MacGregor imagines dystopian worlds where colour does not exist, and corporate scorched earth policies leave sterile landscapes in their midst.

Investigating the sources and prevalence of plastics and micro-plastics, small scale studies like Lunularia cruciata
utilise stylised botanical shapes and carbonised wood.

Lar MacGregor Leaf Litter, 2021. A memory of a small child, running through the leaves. Photo by Ewen Weatherspoon.
Lar MacGregor: Wind on the Heath, 2021. A walk alongside the wind turbines, in the borders of Scotland. Photocredit: Ewen Weatherspoon
Lar MacGregor Today we walk in shadow, 2021. Four grown children attempting to comprehend loss. Photocredit: Ewen Weatherspoon

Using scrapped copper and a hammer, MacGregor made this body of work in memory of her father.

“When I was small, my Dad and I would walk together. We usually walked in silence and we
mapped our progress in distance and time; independent of each other but connected by place
and process. I don’t remember when the practice of walking or the smell of leaf litter became
central to my art practice, but the smell, touch, sights and sounds all feed into the ambulatory
capital obtained from placing my feet, one in front of the other, in a repetitive fashion.”

The use of scrap copper and hand tools are central to MacGregor’s practice which prioritises sustainability, whilst addressing personal stories in relation to landscape. Her works become abstract conversations with her surroundings.

Leaf Litter, 2021
Reclaimed copper

The artist says “I use hand tools wherever possible, and I create art that has a strong aesthetic to enable me to have conversations about the more difficult choices we all need to make, without judging the individual or the
journey they are on.”

Finished Installations by Lar MacGregor

Examples of MacGregor’s sculptural installations, drawing upon the interconnecting themes within her work.

Addressed?, 2023
Found plastic and leaves

During the Covid-19 days, small white carrier bags began appearing in my garden, and in hedge rows near my home. I read a book called ‘Wanderful’ by David Pearl; it’s about the arts, walking and social change. Pearl believes art and walking can deliver fresh insight to our lives and I responded to this notion by exploring my garden, and what gives me my sense of place, with those little white bags and a liverwort: Lunularia Cruciata. All life happens in a garden. Chance plantings, sitting with much loved trees, wildlife, growing food, solitude, sounds, tactility, creativity and growth!

This installation was made from 100 of those cleaned and processed carrier bags.

As the last leaf falls, 2023
Wood and copper

A lifetime ago I was an Addiction Counsellor, and one of the techniques we discussed at length in our training to become Person Centred Counsellors, was Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that is centred on increasing a person’s awareness, freedom, and self direction.

It focuses on the present moment rather than on past experiences. So I look to my garden for succour; a flash of green still visible amongst the Bryophytes and Lichens that adorn the Silver Birches, the last of their leaves falling quietly to their resting place.

Between hope and despair, 2023
Wood and copper

This is where I sit, watching, listening, breathing in the heady aroma of earth, woodsmoke, and
hope.

Using a circular approach to making, my chairs are designed using locally sourced green wood, and timber.

It is seasoned at home and processed using hand tools.

Plastic and Landscape

*Seaweed*, 2020
Created for a seaweed festival in Ullapool

The degradation of plastic is slow but constant, so the larger plastic objects are a ticking time bomb, breaking down over time and raising levels of micro-plastics exponentially; smaller objects impact and travel up the food chain. Plastic pollution is a global problem that requires a global response, but efforts to address plastic pollution on a systemic level are fragmented and woefully inadequate.

Seaweed utilised white carrier bags rescued from various shorelines on the North, and West coastlines of Scotland.

Carbon Futures, 2025
Waste plastic bags and carbonised wood (detail)

This exhibition concludes with a final example of MacGregor’s small scale studies into plastic in landscape.

About Lar MacGregor

Lar MacGregor has a passion for sustainability and circular economies, and as such uses regenerative materials such as wood, waste plastics, scrap metals and found objects to create her sculptural works. The importance of provenance and practicality go hand-in-hand, and the majority of her material is sourced near to her workshop. MacGregor can trace the wood she uses back to the stump, or the copper back to the skip or scrapyard. The plastics she uses are gathered from hedgerows or roadside.