25.03.26 – 31.03.26 Open weekdays, 11am–4pm The Gatehouse, Edinburgh College – Granton Campus (350 W Granton Rd, EH5 1QE)
Opening Event: 24.03.26 | 5pm–8pm | The Gatehouse
This is an exhibition about art, craft and community exploring the potential of a gallery as a creative space when it is opened up to participation.
What Is This Space For? transforms the Gatehouse into a community living room – a welcoming, participatory space for making, gathering and belonging. Rather than presenting a conventional exhibition where visitors are passive viewers, this project invites you to spend time, take part and help shape the space as it unfolds.
There is often a perceived tension between art and craft. In some circles, the distinction between the two can feel pronounced, shaped by questions of status, individual authorship and value. This exhibition gently sets aside that hierarchy, bringing both practices into conversation and using them as shared tools for connection. Rather than reinforcing division, the space asks how art and craft might come together to foster community.
The exhibition begins with work created by members of the Knitting and Crocheting Society, forming a starting point for conversation and connection. Over the course of the week, the space will continue to evolve through a programme of workshops and shared activities.
As part of the same programme, hubCAP has partnered with Edinburgh College’s Student Association to deliver a community quilt workshop — a closed event for Edinburgh College students. The collaboration reflects a shared commitment to student community building, using craft as a way to bring people together across the college and strengthen the connections that make it a place people feel they belong.
Programme of Events
Tuesday 24 March Opening Event | 5.00pm – 8.00pm Join us to celebrate the launch of What Is This Space For? at the Gatehouse.
Wednesday 25 March Knitting and Crocheting Society Workshop | 11.00am – 2.00pm
(Closed event – for enrolled Edinburgh College student only)
Edinburgh College Student Association Community Quilt Workshop | 2.00pm – 4.00pm A collaborative quilt-making session for Edinburgh College students, delivered in partnership with the Student Association.
(Closed event – for enrolled Edinburgh College student only)
Thursday 26 March | 1.30pm – 3.30pm Zine Workshop with Jen Ouson A relaxed, hands-on afternoon of stitch, print, collage and bookmaking led by the artist Jen Ouson. Create your own small artist’s book!
Monday 30 March Creating a Future Fossil – Workshop with Annette Bruton | 2.00pm – 4.00pm Using textile waste, participants are invited to imagine what a fossil from our time might look like in millennia to come. Contributions can form part of Annette’s ongoing project, though participants are welcome to keep their work.
Tuesday 31 March Visible Mending Workshop | 1.00pm – 3.30pm Learn how to patch or darn damaged clothes and knitwear, transforming repair into a badge of honour — a quiet rejection of fast fashion.
Opening at SETT Studios on Thursday, 16th October 2025 Cawood’s latest presentation draws on several years of research and creative experimentation to produce work that delves into the layered industrial history of Prestongrange — once one of Scotland’s most significant brick and tile works, and home to early coal mining operations dating back to the 12th century.
The exhibition takes its title from the Latin firmamentum, meaning “a firm object” or “celestial barrier.” This dual sense of strength and mystery resonates through Cawood’s practice, which merges meticulous, archival study with deeply material processes. His works — ranging from “textual objects” to experimental photographic pieces on tile — embody a physical and conceptual dialogue with the site’s past. Each piece is the result of labour-intensive techniques that mirror the endurance and transformation embedded in the landscape itself.
Firmament represents the culmination of Cawood’s investigations into site, value, and industrial heritage, revealing a body of work that is both contemplative and tactile. Visitors will encounter a collection of pieces that evoke the textures of history, reimagined through the lens of contemporary art. Notably, the exhibition also introduces new, never-before-seen works, offering a first glimpse into the artist’s latest explorations.
The opening event takes place on Thursday, 16th October, with two sessions: a bookable Quiet Opening from 3pm to 5.30pm, designed to provide a relaxed, accessible experience, and the Main Opening from 6pm to 8pm.
Following the launch, the exhibition will be open for public viewing on:
17th October: 3pm – 8pm
18th – 20th October: 12pm – 5pm
A special event on 19th October (2.30pm – 4pm) will feature a bookable Writing Workshop with Beth Cockerline, inviting participants to creatively respond to the themes and atmosphere of Firmament.
Through Firmament, Edward Cawood transforms the remnants of Scotland’s industrial past into meditative reflections on endurance, decay, and the stories embedded in place — bridging history, art, and material memory in one evocative exhibition.
hubCAP Gallery is an Artist Run Exhibitions and Events organisation run by a rotating committee of participants of the HND Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) course at Edinburgh College Granton Campus. ‘Frimament’ is the first off campus exhibition by hubCAP.
SETT Studios is an artist-run studio with dedicated gallery space in Leith, Edinburgh.
Further information including accessibility information is available via the hubCAP Gallery website:
“The crucial thing about entropy- it always increases over time. It is the natural tendency of things to lose order. Left to its own devices, life will always become less structured. Sandcastles get washed away. Weeds overtake gardens” 2
In this unprecedented time of change and turmoil perhaps we need to embrace entropy? Perhaps we need to pause and let things be washed away, slow down and let the weeds take over? Synonymous with immersive installations, Mike Nelson recently spent two months in homage to this decay; in an act of service and love to the entropy of a block of South London flats. In a “reverse DIY”3 feat, Nelson has created a hauntingly familiar work, Humpty Dumpty, a transient history of Mardin earthworks, low rise, at Fruitmarket gallery in Edinburgh. The exhibit, which coincides with Edinburgh Arts Festival, then comes full circle and counters with the inquisitive exploration of the rebirth of a South-Eastern Turkish city, Mardin.
If you grew up in the 70s-90s, in a British council house, Low Tide is akin to attending the funeral of a former life. I’d suggest you start your journey here, in the upper gallery and Warehouse,where Nelson sensitively captures the gritty detail with nostalgic reminiscence, of the now extinct, Heygate Estate, through photography, sculpture and installation.
Life-size documentation, come sculptures, dominate the upper gallery. Interior and exterior scenes ubiquitous to run-down, concrete housing estates around the country are showcased and transformed into 3D works with Nelson’s scavenged and reused materials- providing a rich textural language of his own work alongside patinaed architectural features. Incongruous 80s arcade machines also form parts of these sculptures, the technology and aesthetic of these pieces not quite matching the decaying beauty of the wooden beams or the flaking deterioration of salvaged metal but a genre marker of an era none-the-less.
The scale of these works (printed on a machine, specifically sourced from the same era as the building) give them transportive powers. I feel like I could walk up the well-worn stairs, I almost feel the threadbare carpet underfoot, the invasive presence of beige- the tiles, the carpets, the wallpaper, the curtains- feels so recognisable I can almost hear the hiss of the open grill in my mum’s kitchen. I smell and could reach out to her infamous chip pan entombed in grease. Stepping into Nelson’s work is like inhabiting a memory and I am flooded with flashbacks of pink velour pyjamas and anaglypta wallpaper.
There is also a distinct evocation of wistfulness in this work. Stairs are embellished with festoons of work lights and torn lanterns from bygone celebrations. They are littered with evidence of lives lived: crisp packets, frayed t-shirts, chipped paintwork, fag-ends and mould. The guts have been ripped out and homes have been left to slowly die.
Continuing this mournful trip through Nelson’s exterior photos, the audience are invited to trespass through scrapyards of rusting hubcaps and abandoned garages. Ironic graffiti claiming this failed utopia as ‘Home Sweet Home’ jostles with the palpable coldness of the giant textured slabs used to hastily construct the tower blocks. We see behind the scenes of the concrete- in excavations of pipes and clipped electrical cables and the monstrous claw of a digger making way for ‘progress’.
If these photos don’t help you inhabit council houses of the 70s, just make your way down to the warehouse where you can physically enter a scale replica of one of the flats Nelson visited. Despite it being a replica in shape and size Nelson has cobbled together this building and it’s contents from all corners of the earth. Suggesting perhaps that decay and entropy are a universal experience? Or just embracing the beauty and texture of found materials?
Apprehensively, I enter through an ominous metal security door (from New York), scrawled with graffiti tags, which creaks and then slams behind me. Instantly, I leave the gallery, and I am consumed by contrary feelings of both home and anxiety. The bones of the place creak as I explore the crumbling façade and damp innards of this building steeped in an melancholic fragility- it feels as if it could disintegrate at any moment. An unfettered harsh light from a bare-bulb and the flicker of a strip light highlight the Matrix-type glitch of this construction, of a construction, within a construction and expose a bookshelf cleared of life but layered in grime.
The shuffle of my feet on barren floorboards is the only sound in this seemingly deserted place which only serves to underline the feeling that I shouldn’t be here. I am witnessing something I shouldn’t, and it is both thrilling and terrifying.
The chipboard walls and chipped doors are laced with roses of mould, and the proverbial stench of damp concrete is pervasive as I try to readjust my vision to the darkness lingering through the kitchen window (from Nelson’s own house I’m told). An expansive building site of rubble and abandoned builder’s buckets surrounds the
About the author: Beth Cockerline is about to start the 2nd year of the HND Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh College. Edinburgh based writer, artist and teacher with a penchant for gender equality, feminism and promoting the rights of marginalised groups. Beth is also a member of the amazing hubCAP gallery in Granton.
The question of government support for individual artists, including visual artists, writers and composers, was the subject of an hour-long debate in the House of Lords this week.
The debate covered a variety of themes including the contribution of art to society, individual and state funding of the art and artists and whether or not art production is becoming a preserve of the rich.
A full transcript of the debate can be found HERE and the following extract relating to art education is taken from a fuller article on the a-n website HERE
A key theme picked up on by a number of peers was the importance of education to the wider debate around the diversity of artists and the value of art in society. Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (Liberal Democrat) said: “It is essential that the status of the arts in the classroom is properly recognised.”
“Have you noticed that whenever an important person visits a school – a prime minister or a president – the first things that they are shown are the paintings of the children? The next thing they are invited to do is to listen to the singing of the children. I rest our case.”
This week the Secretary of State for Scotland visited Edinburgh College to speak to students about votes for 16-17 year olds:
“The Contemporary Art Practice course has a fine art focus, offering students the environment to experiment, to investigate processes and challenge themselves. Says lecturer Alan Holligan, “We offer a very broad range of contemporary practices so people can specialise in sculpture, 2D practices, 3D practices or mixed practice. Usually they make decisions based on the courses they specifically want to go to, wherever that might be. They’re encouraged to work into areas that we as lecturers don’t necessarily have expertise in. I think in some courses they’re supposed to stay within the knowledge of their lecturer, which is why there’s often an emphasis on painting, an emphasis on sculpture, whereas we’re very clear that the students’ ambition shouldn’t be set by our skillset. They need to outreach that and often we have to keep up with them, which is good for everybody concerned.”
This year’s class first exhibited in the working professional environment that is the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, before transferring a pared-down version of the show to Summerhall. They’re a mixed bunch, exploring a wide variety of disciplines with varying degrees of success. Still at an experimental stage in their practice, this is to be expected. However, some students display a striking level of ambition, notably Jay Easton, who delves into the realms of technology to present work which aims to pose challenging questions. In ESW, two iPhones communicate with one another, displaying the mundane chatter between a couple. With the human protagonists removed from the equation, the relationship is reduced to two screens interacting eerily.
In Summerhall, Easton displays two QR codes, one on a slate (redolent of history, sculpture, early man) and one on a box afixed to the wall. A hasty download of a QR scanner (the technology seems a bit retro already, ironically) reveals the works to link to texts on his blog meditating on the dangers of an unconsidered embrace of technology, and the parallels of Pandora’s box, respectively.
He’s now off to GSA to delve further into his research. Like many in the Let’s Glow showcase, Easton is at an interesting point in his development. The bright prospects each has before them suggests this will not be the last we hear of them.”
It has been a while but finally we’re getting round to some blog updates. Although there have been a few updates over and since the summer there are a few gaps that need filling so we’ll start with some images from the 2014 Diploma Exhibition Anjila’s Glasses which took place at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in late May. The exhibition was fantastic of course and extremely well attended on the opening night and the following days is was open to the public. This year the exhibition was shorter than usual, open only 2 days for public viewing but that was due to the need to relocate much of the work to Summerhall as the students were taking part in the general Edinburgh College Creative Industries HND Diploma Exhibition at the city centre arts venue.
Mariola Albinowska & Kaitlyn Walker-Stewart
Jay Easton
Anjila Wilson
Josh Waterson
A week into the Summerhall show an additional room became available which allowed our CAP1 colleagues to show a work each from their recent projects and you can see them installing in their work in the image below.
You can see more of the CAP end of year exhibitions and the openings in this slide show:
The AIRetc…. Contemporary Art Team are delighted to welcome our new Artist In Residence, Julie Duffy. Julie, who graduated from the HND at at the former Telford College in 2008 went on to gain a 1st class BA Hons Degree in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), is our eighth resident in the AIR studio.
Since graduating from DJCAD in 2011 Julie has developed new work and has exhibited regularly throughout Edinburgh including solo exhibitions at Summerhall and group shows at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. As well as developing her solo practice in sculpture Julie has more recently been developing collaborative practices with Hayley Mathers who as well as being a former AIRetc…. is also a graduate from DJCAD.
Julie is also an active member and former studio holder at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop where she has developed a curatorial role as a member of the 2 person TANK committee which is responsible for the programming of the TANK project and exhibition space at ESW.
Julie has already made a fantastic contribution to the HND CAP course by getting involved with studio / project crits and we are all really looking forward to the working closely with her over the next few months.
Julie will be blogging throughout her time as AIR and as always you can follow her progress on the AIRetc website. In the meantime you can find pout more about Julie and her practice by visiting her website:
Lauren McLaughlin is the artist in residence at Edinburgh College. The Artist in Residency (AIR) programme welcomes emerging artists and designers who have studied at the college in the past to work in the college’s state-of-the-art studios. The AIR programme gives students the opportunity to work alongside talented artists to develop their own creative practice.
Lauren, who studied HND Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh College, has exhibited at several reputable exhibitions across the UK including Valentines Mansion in London, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshops, the 2|1|4|1 Members Show at SWG3 Glasgow and the 03 Gallery, Oxford. She uses a mixture of mediums to create striking pieces, including sculpture, photography, installations and is best known for her collages.
What was the best part of your course at college?
For me, the best part was the variety of projects and activities I took part in during my time at college. Through participating in group projects, working with fellow students as well as numerous educational visits to galleries and artists spaces, we learnt so much and gained so many experiences in a relatively short period of time.
How has the college supported you or set you up as an artist?
The lecturing staff on the course were definitely a major source of support and encouragement. Their dedication not only to their current students but the continued support of the alumni throughout their careers is fantastic. During my time at college we also had a lot of visiting artists and lecturers, which really gave us a great insight into a professional arts career and prepared me for life after college.
Click on the link to read the article and interview with Lauren in full:
Now that I’m nicely settled into the college and the AIR studio, I guess its about time for my introductory post!
I’ve been here for a few weeks now, taking over from the lovely Hayley Mathers who gave me lots of useful advice and insights into her time as AIR over the past few months. Hayley’s show; ‘SUN’ was held at the Sculpture Workshops a couple of weeks ago and it was great to see the work she produced during her time at the college. I wrote a wee review of the show which you can have a read of here: http://2-1-4-1.com/Exhibition-Review-and-Artist-Interview-SUN-Hayley-Mathers
Having a studio again has been fantastic, since graduating in 2012 I’ve been working from home on my kitchen table which really isn’t ideal when the table has to be used for eating dinner, doing your child’s homework and making art all at the same time. In saying that, the whole process has really informed my practice over the past year or so and my hope is that these ideas and processes of working will be able to be developed in a larger and more coherent scale in the studio – but more on that later.
New exhibition curated by CAP guest lecturer Benjamin Fallon opens at IMPAKT Festival in Utrecht.
To the reader is a new exhibition curated by #CAPetc guest lecturer and ex-student Benjamin Fallon. Forming part of the 2013 IMPAKT Festival the exhibition deals with issues around capital and the lack of cohesive responses since the crisis that emerged in 2008. IMPAKT is a major European media art festival, which has taken place annually in Utrect, Netherlands since 1988. Each year IMPAKT deals with a single theme, which is examined through various media, including an extensive film programme, talks, events and exhibition. The theme of this year’s festival is CAPITALISM CATCH-22 posing the question of how to solve the dilemma, which exists between capitalisms place as the dominant and seemingly most workable economic system and its failures and the apparent inevitability of it being a dead end.
“The work in the show understands the limits of a moral critique that suggests that capital should just act nicely. Curator Benjamin Fallon points out that asking an inhuman system that is fundamentally interested in its own progress and growth, to behave in the interest of humans, is ultimately futile.”
To The Reader emerges from the understanding that capitalism is, first and foremost, a social relation that defines our behaviour. The exhibition is grounded in our current historical period. The basis for capitalism as a mode of organization has never been weaker, but paradoxically has seen almost no credible articulations of dissent. Perhaps there have been some fairly weak moral pleas for it to behave more pleasantly, and vague ideas that a return to Fordism and Keynesianism might be a good idea.
The exhibition itself is a tightly packed constellation of existing, newly commissioned and extended works, thinking through some of the contradictions we find ourselves entangled within. Whilst some of the information and ideas dealt with are necessarily complex, the exhibition will maintains a level of humour, understanding the importance for a certain lightness of touch when dealing with complexity.
The exhibition includes works by: Daniel Andújar; Bureau d’études; Liam Gillick; Goldin+Senneby; Hiwa K; Mierle Laderman Ukeles; Learning Site; Huw Lemmey and Ben Vickers; The Bureau of Melodramatic Research; Capital Drawing Group (Andrew Cooper, Enda Deburka, Dean Kenning, and John Russell); Paul Sullivan; and Marika Troili.
Opening on Friday 18 October from 17.00 to 20.00 hrs at BAK, with a performance by The Bureau of Melodramatic Research titled Lovegold – Contemporary Alchemy at 18.30 hrs.
On Saturday 2 November 2013 at 15.00 hrs, Fallon and participating artists will introduce the project through a guided tour.
The Impakt Festival takes place from 30 October to 3 November 2013 at various locations throughout Utrecht. For more information on the Impakt Festival exhibition To The Reader, please visit www.impakt.nl.
Benjamin Fallon is an independent curator, writer and designer currently based in Brussels. Since leaving the HND Public Art (now Contemporary Art Practice) at Edinburgh College Granton (formally Edinburgh’s Telford College) he has participated in Curatorlab, Konstfack Stockholm 2012/13, served as co-director of Embassy Gallery between 2008 and 2010 and prior to this he worked in various capacities at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and ONEZERO. Benjamin is visiting lecturer at both Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh College.
Benjamin is instigator of the working group Let’s get together and call ourselves an institute. researching the possibilities for new forms of institutional practice.
‘PARADISE’ is an exhibition of new work by #exCAPer Sofie Fischer-Rasmussen. The exhibition is a presentation of bold, botanically themed, photographic works, fragile sculptures and intricate instillations. These are the result of the artist’s struggle to maintain the necessary balance between economic self sufficiency, and becoming a professional working artist in her first year out of art school.
Sofie graduated from HND Contemporary Art Course at Edinburgh College Granton in 2009 before going directly into year 2 of the highly respected Sculpture and Environmental Art Course at Glasgow School of Art. Since graduating from GSA in summer 2012 Sofie has continued to develop her practice while dealing with the economic realities of life after art school.
Sofie is prolific in her use of social media and internet based research. Some which readers can see from the links below which include an interview on Glasgow based artists collective 2-1-4-1 website.
PARADISE: Opens tonight at 6pm at A.Gallery, 87 Saltmarket Glasgow.
SERIAL SETTLEMENTS: An exhibition of new work by Edinburgh College Artist In Residence Neil Nodzak. This exhibition of work developed and produced during the residency in the Art & Design dept at Edinburgh College marks the end of a highly successful and productive period in Neil’s emerging career.
Neil talks about his new work featured in new Talbot Rice Exhibition “Drawn Away Together” and what its like to be involved in crits again at contemporaryartetc…
Local is an exhibition by HND Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) students from the Granton Campus of the Edinburgh College. The artworks that can be seen in the exhibition at North Edinburgh Arts until February the 23rd are the culmination of a project which was instigated in September 2012 by ourselves, Alan Holligan & Jennie Temple, course lecturers on HND CAP, with priceless support from Lynn McCabe and the North Edinburgh Social History Group.
The Contemporary Art Practice course has been running very successfully since 2007. The course provides a range of excellent opportunities for students to develop a broad understanding of artistic practice. Alan and I had for some time been discussing how to develop a strong working connection between the CAP Course, the local community and surrounding areas of North Edinburgh. Beyond the college location, and the students who came to us who lived locally, we recognised that although we were part of a Community College (then Edinburgh’s Telford College: a stalwart of North Edinburgh for many years) we felt professional connection to our immediate surroundings could be stronger. We acknowledged that we bussed in and out of work every day, passing through the community in which our workplace was rooted, and also acknowledged that this was something we did not feel entirely comfortable about. As a result we started to discuss the possibility of a project for our HND 2nd year students that we hoped would, at the very least, begin a dialogue with some our neighbours.
We initially approached a couple of local groups to see if they would be interested in meeting with us, and subsequently our students. We couldn’t have anticipated the warmth with which we were greeted and quite quickly we were able to establish links and visits with (the amazing) North Edinburgh Social History Group and North Edinburgh Arts (with whom we already had some links). These visits were incredibly informative and allowed us to immediately understand the local area more fully, and in a way that we had never before: An area steeped in history; an area that had once been rich farmland; an area that had been home to a post-war camp; an area that the Duke of Buccleuch had happily called home, and much, much more. The students were instantly engaged and brought a range of rich contributions to the discussions: amongst the group of 11 students the majority was similar to us; they did not know the area very well. However, there is one current student (and we have had several prior) who grew up in the area and who has been able to give a very subjective insight into his relationship with North Edinburgh, alongside a few other students with friends and relatives in the area.
After these initial meetings and an amazing guided mini-bus tour of the area, generously facilitated by members of the Social History Group, we set the students the project. They were to spend two weeks responding to the local area and draw on the information that they had received from the experts. We would then present the resulting artworks to the Social History Group at the College.
At this point, we were all very excited, but could not have anticipated just how successful and stimulating the project would be. The students worked exceptionally hard from the moment the project started and responded in meaningful, thoughtful and sensitive ways. In retrospect, we realised that the students’ sense of responsibility to the Social History Group and the residents of North Edinburgh meant that they approached the project with a strong sense of integrity and a determination to make artworks that did not patronise or misrepresent the (sometimes sensitive and personal) issues that had been discussed within the meetings. The provision of a very unambiguous context for the artwork allowed the students to work in a way that was fundamentally different to normal project work: they had an audience that they did not know very well, and they were making work which they would themselves present to their audience.
As the initial stage of the project drew to a conclusion, we arranged a date for some members of the Social History Group to come and lunch with us and to view the works. The students were understandably nervous and worried: What if they didn’t like what we had done? Quickly it became clear that there was no need for nerves and all of the artworks were exceptionally well received and prompted lively, important and some emotional discussion amongst everyone present. The success and positive reception of the artworks went far, far beyond our expectations and we all knew immediately that we had to take the project to its next logical step: to exhibit the works, beyond the walls of the college and within the local community. And that is where we are now. The exhibition is an exciting opportunity for the staff and students to continue to engage with our local area and we are privileged to be taking part in what we hope to be the first stage of a long and prosperous collaboration between the students and staff of the HND Contemporary Art Practice course and the local residents and communities of North Edinburgh.
Jennie Temple.
The exhibition will run until the 23rd of February at North Edinburgh Arts, Tuesday-Friday 10am-8pm Sat 10am – 1pm, with a day of discussion and art-workshops to take place on Wednesday the 20th February from 10am until 3pm. Places are free but limited and booking is essential. Please book a place by emailing admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk or call 0131 315 2515
Recruitment is currently taking place for HND Contemporary Art Practice Course at the Edinburgh College, Granton Campus. If you are interested please visit the College website for further information and online application.
Guest blogger Alex Hetherington presents: Modern Edinburgh Film School
Images Courtesy of Alex Hetherington: Modern Edinburgh Film School
Modern Edinburgh Film School – a temporary participatory film school, combining themes of the sculptural screen, film and poetry, narrative and space, event as image, and acoustics and noise as form – is curated by the visual artist Alex Hetherington in association with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
It acts as a kind of prism, reflecting, connected and transparent surfaces – where one thing can be seen through another – on the activities, functions and architecture of the Sculpture Workshop’s
new building and outward to contexts, processes and activities externally, as satellite disparate engagements. It is informed by propositions and practices by a range of national and international artists demonstrating concerns between improvisational, meticulous and sensitively drawn associations in poetry, film, moving image, space and sculpture. It hopes to work as a season of projects, appearing and disappearing, being seen discreetly, at spaces and venues across the city in 2013.
Its propositions, which are elusive and allusive include a series of essays, of indicators of historical and contemporary activity, a slight curriculum: Edgar Schmitz, Anne Colvin, AA Bronson, Tom Marioni, Trisha Donnelly, Samantha Donnelly, Rachel Harrison, Martin Kippenberger, Harry Everett Smith, Marcel Broodthaers & Aurélien Froment and traits found in contributors, influencers and cameos such as Stephen Sutcliffe, Anthony Schrag, Anne Colvin, Lyndsay Mann, Hazel France, Sarah Forrest, Ute Aurand, Sarah Neely, Lauren Gault, Debi Banerjee, Benjamin Fallon, Zoë Fothergill, Raydale Dower, and others.
The project, meanwhile is informed by the free school, and alternative learning approaches, inhabiting an arc of combined themes of the sculptural screen, film and poetry, narrative and space, event as image, and acoustics and noise as form. Education here becomes an obstacle, articulating thoughts on commitment, graduation, qualification and drifting attention, and the possibilities of promiscuous coincidences, synchronicity. Meanwhile it contains two considerations of time, Modern and School, and the meanings of those in abrasion to a city with faint film vocabularies, traditions, establishment and authority and museums. In turn it contains thoughts on exhibitions, fictions and contrivances: outputs, alongside the essays are, transparent letter texts on black glass (solid film credits), zines and print, and a series of events and talks: Green Screen, Group Show, A Party for Young Artists, Edinburgh Homosexual, The Hand that Holds The Desert Down, A Library.
From the outset the School sought practitioners from different stages of their careers, including students in formal education, as well as those working at a professional level in contemporary art. After an open discussion on the work, and its ambitions, at Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh College and an open call, that followed the conventions of applying for work in that professional setting: 4 images, statement and moving image samples, two practitioners were identified to become part of the project, to attend works, and respond finally with a time-based submission for a portmanteau film for a screening at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s appearance at the Edinburgh Art Festival in August 2013.
All the applicants in this process responded to different aspects of the shaping of Modern Edinburgh Film School, some revealing questions on the political status of such an undertaking, others looking at the subject of the poetic and the sublime, how literature and words give potent expression to filmmaking, how the digital might inform the sculptural.
The two successful candidates are Shareen Sorour and Kaitlyn Walker-Stewart whose applications both alluded to the symmetries, echoes and architectures of film, poetry and sculpture, while containing experimental and diverse approaches to the screen, the performative, time, the object, surface and representation. While still very early stage visual art practitioners their portfolios contain intriguing enquiries.
Sharren Sarour: Outside: Inside; Still from Video. Kaitlyn Walker-Stewart: Barriers; Still from video
Modern Edinburgh Film School commences 15 March with a screening at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and a group show, Green Screen, co-curated with Embassy, followed there by performances and talks during March, and later a discussion on this collaboration at Edinburgh College of Art.
I would like to thank Alan Holligan, Jennie Temple and Colette Woods at Edinburgh College for their continued generous support of my practice in general and the work to be carried out for Modern Edinburgh Film School in particular.
There is little doubt that 2012 was among the most eventful years for us at #cap_etc. Multiple highs have been followed by occasional but necessary lows, necessary in so much that they help us recognize and appreciate the highs.
Here There; Exhibition by AIRetc… Paul Diamond at ESW. Click on Image for more details
In January the year began with the mixed emotions due to the departure after an extremely successful 4 months of Artist in Residence Paul Diamond who ended his time with us with a fantastic site specific project with students and an excellent exhibition of work developed and produced during the residency at Telford college. The exhibition at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop was very well received. Since completing the residency Paul has gone on to even better things but more of that later.
As January turned over to February the devastating news of Mike Kelleys untimely departure filtered through the studios promoting gasps of disbelief and sadness, we had so enjoyed his exhibition at Baltic during a field trip just a few months before. CAP student Charlie Wilkie-Sullivan who was a particular admirer of Kelleys work wrote a piece for this blog in response to the news. http://contemporaryartetc.com/?s=mike+kelley
Spirits were soon lifted however with the arrival of our next AIR resident Natalie Wilson who began her occupation of ‘the studio next door’.
AIRetc… Natalie Wilson Setting in to studio. Click on Image for more details.
Natalie’s impact was immediate as she struck up conversations with students and staff, always inquisitive and helpful Natalie had a significant impact on the
course sharing her enthusiasm, knowledge and occasional frustration for all things digital.
Spring saw us embark on the annual CAP trip to a foreign city beginning with the letter B. So far we have only managed Berlin and Basel and until Berlin stops being; the centre off the european if not world contemporary art scene, almost, unbearably cool and wonderfully inexpensive it is doubtful we will revisit Basel or see Budapest, Barcelona, Boston, or Bogota any time soon. Highlights of the trip included, finally getting more than one member of the CAP team on the trip and once again the Boros Bunker.
Diploma Exhibition: Image by and of Natalie Doyle.
Spring is always a tense time in the studios as both years are working on their Graded Units and expectant applicants are hammering away at the refresh button on the UCAS website as news of interviews and offers start to permeate the building. The stress although unavoidable, was misplaced however as 2012 will go down in the CAP history books as the most successful year ever as 100% of those applying got an unconditional offer for 1 of their top 2 choices. All applicants got places on degree courses in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee. 1 applicant who already had a degree in a non art related subject was offered and is doing very well on a combined master course in Art & Philosophy in Dundee.
As the tension of anticipated futures subsided thoughts turned to the end of year exhibition. Unfortunately due to the transition between the old and new buildings it wasn’t possible to hold the CAP2 Diploma Show at our usual venue of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Instead the show opened at the Old Ambulance Depot in late May to excellent reviews and record attendances.
Natalie Wilson: Installation View of ‘Extract at ESW. Click on Image for more details.
The OA Depot is a great venue that has some really strong shows throughout the year, is affordable, well supported and we would certainly recommend to anyone looking for a mid sized exhibition space in the city.
Soon after the show however the disappointment that we couldn’t exhibit in what had become something of a spiritual second home faded as staff and studio reps were invited to the opening of the brand new Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and it was announced that after a 7 year informal partnership with the CAP course at Edinburgh’s Telford College the 2 organisations had signed a formal partnership agreement which would establish ESW as an Employability Centre for CAP students studying at Edinburgh College guaranteeing students full professional membership, supported access to the workshops facilities, exhibition and professional practice workshops and opportunities. This milestone deal with the course will last for 10 years! Not a bad way to end the 2011/12 academic session!
More good news followed as we attended the fantastic degree shows of many former CAPers throughout June.
CAP1 Growth Project Collaborative Construction & Exhibition at ESW . Click on Image for more Info
In July and August things took a slower pace but soon picked up again with the influx of a new CAP1 group who were madesuitably welcome by the CAP2 devised and executed induction week project! Billed as a tea party it turned into a something more akin to riot in a charity shop! Excellent!
It wasnt long before we were taking advantage of our new parnership with ESW as AIRetc… Natalie Wilson exhibited the work she had developed and produced during her residency with us. The show, only the second ever in the ESW Eduardo Paolozzi Project Space was beautiful and articulate. A very fitting outcome to very successful residency.
Talking of fitting outcomes, I did say we would come back to our previous AIRetc… Artist, Paul Diamond, who started work as the Graduate Studio Assistant at the University of Edinburgh’s world renowned School of Architecture in October.
Gregor Morrison; Development Detail. Click on Image for more Info.
October was also the month in which CAP1 started their 7 week project at ESW. After 7 years of working with successive CAP1 groups in the old ESW building, which wasnot without its charms, you can be assure it was an absolute pleasure to be in a building with floods of natural light and heating. The outcomes which were exhibited in a staff student collaborative exhibition and review by 2 of the CAP1 participants can be found in the post immediately below this one or by clicking HERE
The third and final AIRetc… Participant for 2012 Gregor Morrison arrived at the the start of October and has been vigorously carving, drawing and printing away in the studio next door ever since. His energy and enthusiasm for printmaking with the the FAD12 students has been infectious providing group and 1-1 support to a range of students. We hope to have news of an exhibition of Gregor’s work very soon.
If anyone is wondering why no mention has been made of the momentus October 1st event that was the merger of the 3 colleges into the newly formed Edinburgh College.
North Edinburgh History Group and CAP2 discussing the work produced for LOCAL. Click on Image for more info.
The truth is that other than the momentary consideration being given changing the name from CAPetc to CAPec the truth is that so far at least the course has been unaffected. Whether that remains the case or not, remains to be seen.
The final months of the the year were packed full of activity in and out of the studio particularly particularly for the CAP2 students who participated in an new LOCAL
project. The premise of the project was to engage with the Political, social and geographical history of the area local to the Granton Campus of the college and to produce artwork in response to the engagement and subsequent research. The, ongoing project involved meetings and presentations for and by the North Edinburgh Local History Group at the North Edinburgh Art centre in Muirhouse. News on the next phase of the LOCAL project will be announced very soon!
Rachael, Kirsty & Rhona at the opening of their exhibition ‘Crit’. Click on the image for more info!
Not satisfied with the with the already significant demands of Year 2 of the course the CAP2 group took it upon themselves to initiate an exhibition of their work entirely unsupported by the college or the staff. Having been inspired by the previous CAP2 group who graduated in June the show, entitled ‘Crit’, took place once again at the Old Ambulance Depot. The show was a genuine triumph and testimony to the groups talents and ambition.
So, thats about it really in terms of the high points of the 2012, there have been many, indeed the only thing missing has been a wedding! Perhaps this year…………?
NESHG & CAP_ETC first meeting at North Edinburgh Arts
LOCAL is a recently launched ongoing collaborative project which seeks to establish community links between Contemporary Art students and staff from Edinburgh College (Granton) and the local communities of North Edinburgh. The project was launched at North Edinburgh Art Centre in September when we met with the North Edinburgh Social History Group (NESHG). The group and local Community Learning and Development worker Lynn McCabe, gave a fantastic presentation about the ares surrounding the Granton Campus from its time as land of gentry as part of the Duke Buccleuch Estate, through the industrialisation of the forth ports, the relocation of the Leith Street slums through to the rent strikes and activism of the last 40 years. After a lively Q&A session which spilled over into lunchtime the group brought the history to life during a bus tour of the local area.
At the end of the tour students were given the task of developing artwork/s in response to the presentation the tour and their discussions.
This week the group; Roberta Blaikie, Brian Eddington, Anna Hutchison, Ian Moore, Brian Robertson and Lynn McCabe joined us at the Granton Campus for lunch followed by a presentation of the work the students had produced. The response from the group was overwhelmingly positive and the discussions were fantastic. Speaking on behalf of the group Lynn said;
“We were all blown away by the creativeness of the students work and the relevance of their art to many of the issues which North Edinburgh has experienced over many years. It was a really inspiring afternoon and great to see such a positive relationship flourish between the college and the community”.
Everyone at ContemporaryArtETC is equally delighted with how the project is developing;
“The students have responded extremely well to the brief and we are very happy that everyone has resoponded so well to the project. This is only the first part of what we all hope will be a long, strong and creative relationship”. Alan Holligan Lecturer at ContemporaryArtETC
Images from the initial meeting and the presentation by the students are viewable below. LOCAL will continue and we hope the next stage will involve a public presentation of the work and workshops within the community.
Congratulations to HND Graduate Lyndsey Hunter who’s wonderful degree show has earned her 1st Class Honours. Lyndsey studied HND Public Art, the fore runner to Contemporary Art Practice and was able to use her HND to go straight into the 3rd year of the Design & Digital Arts Degree course at Napier University.
Lyndsey’s final project was developed from an interest in the illusionary aspects of high budget theme-park rides and an analysis of data gathered through a survey of the publics deep rooted personal fears. Her response was to produce an multi sensory immersive environment which gives the viewer a very authentic sense of being lost in the woods at night with a distant lightning storm approaching.
As well as designing these immersive environment, which she hopes to be publicly sited in museums, Lyndsey has also started her own print company called The Hunter Press. Specialising in event stationary and print The Hunter Press will be a fully operation print press studio using 3 newly restored Hiedelberg Windmill Presses.
