Indeterminate Objects (Maps) is about geological time or rather, our inability to comprehend it. The project was borne – initially at least – from a trip to the Isle of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides. Reachable by boat from Oban on the west coast of Scotland, the volcanic island rears up suddenly from the sea, like a giant quartz crystal part submerged in an inky black sea. A magnificent giant meteorite that has landed from outer space. Staffa’s strange hexagonal basalt columns and impossible geometry seem to have arrived from outer space but are now thought to have been seeded by meteorites colliding with earth.
Photography’s own history is a tiny speck on this timeline, with its appearance inextricably linked to the opening up of the extraordinary geological landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and beyond to the wider world. Using fragments of early travel photographs from the Mackinnon Albums of the National Library of Scotland, multiple scenes of volcanic islands and flashes from hidden crystalline caves come together in one scene. Maps touches on the way in which the medium sought to fix time in the face of geological and environmental change.

‘Stretch your arm out to the side. Now imagine drawing a timeline of (a) meteorite’s life beginning at the middle of your chin and extending to the tip of your middle finger. On that timeline, the crystal-clear ocean, home to mosasaurs and dinosaurs, would come into existence around the middle of your palm. The great ice sheet at the tip of your finger.’

Helen Gordon, The Meteorites. Encounters with Outer Space and Deep Time.

Wendy McMurdo 2026