Own Art: Edinburgh Art Festival
We preview what's on at the galleries hosting the Own Art scheme in the Scottish capital
Within the coming programme of Edinburgh Art Festival exhibitions, there is not only the chance to experience the work of emergent practitioners and established artists; you can also take some work home with you, with the assistance of the Own Art programme.
The Ingleby Gallery hosts the work of Charles Avery, who exhibits an installation of his public sculpture in Waverley Station this month. With long-term project The Islanders, he has created a huge fictional island, describing related drawings and sculptures as "souvenirs". Whenever someone buys one, as he put it in 2009's The Islanders: An Introduction, they’re funding his ongoing adventure into this imaginative landscape.
Also as part of the Festival, Derek Michael Besant’s exhibition In Other Words... will display his combined photographic and textual works at Edinburgh Printmakers. In these blurred black and white portraits, overlaid with poetic text, he questions the separation of how we 'see' and what we 'read' – something of a departure from the Canadian artist’s usual large scale public works. Professor Nick Wade gives a free lecture on the work on 20 August, 6:30-7:30pm.
Things become more traditional at The Scottish Gallery, where James Morrison (now in his 80s) displays his most recent painted landscapes. One in particular is a rediscovered work made in the wake of Joan Eardley’s death. Throughout all of his work he incorporates a kind of lyrical, poetic take on the landscape format, which Morrison still considers to be full of new potentials even now, in the later stages of his career.
The Royal Scottish Academy will be launching a selection of Academy Artist works for sale during the festival, while also taking on a specific moment of the history of the Edinburgh Festival as the subject of its latest exhibition. Until 5 September, the RSA is showing The Water Hen, a recently discovered film of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's play as envisioned by renowned Polish polymath Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990). Accompanying this presentation will be photographs from the performance.
Also in the RSA until 15 February, the work of James Cumming, one of the most talented and original artists practising in Scotland in the 20th century is on display. His work turns on the personal abstract vocabulary he developed away from the influence of an art scene, on the remote Isle of Lewis. Following a recent generous gift by Cumming’s family to the RSA, the exhibit showcases Cummings’ sketchbook, paintings, studio objects and archival materials.
Edinburgh Art Festival takes place between 30 Jul-30 Aug