rhythmaning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhythmaning) wrote2008-08-16 12:07 pm
rhythmaning) wrote2008-08-16 12:07 pm
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On the Beach: Festival art in Portobello
On Edinburgh’s Riviera, Big Things on the Beach is an exhibition of public art organised by the people of Portobello.
It was eighteen months since I was last down at Portobello Beach, a place with which I have a strong, deep romantic attachment. Strange that I so rarely go there, really.
It was a showery day. The art is on display in people’s gardens - the Portobello Garden Gallery: twenty six pieces in gardens and three commissioned pieces in public spaces.
It was, frankly, brilliant. It is such a good idea, and so encompassing and embracing, and it worked superbly. Hats off to the organisers and the people who agreed to host bits of art in their gardens.
Wandering around the opening day a couple of weeks ago was just a pleasure. Lots of people were out, braving the showers, and there was a real festive feel – it felt like a party.
I didn’t like all the art, of course, but I don’t really think that was the point. And a lot of it I did like.
Much of the art focused on the “garden” aspect of the spaces. There some pieces which featured living plants – Ettie Spencer’s Smokin’ featured tobacco plants, parts of a large installation called Tobacco House (and if I hadn’t seen the label, I wouldn’t have realised the plants growing in someone’s garden was part of the art) – and many featured plant-forms in sculpture. Jessica Harrison’s Floral displays features casts of body parts arranged as plants, and was very disturbing; other pieces featured ironware-sculptures of leaves and a variety of plant-forms in sculpture.
The pieces that worked best for me were those that worked with the environment. I particularly liked David Faithfull’s Arcade Sandscape on the side of a house.
I also liked Louise Kramer’s Hypothesis 1 - a series of acrylic tubes filled with colour; it just seemed to work, especially in the sun which briefly shone through the liquids.
Much of the art made me laugh or smile. A gnome-like astronaut in the strange environment of a small garden (Untitled by Arran Ross), for instance, or the jousting castles of Scott Laverie’s Things to Come.
Land Stream by Angela Beardley – one of the three big commissioned pieces – stretched across the esplanade onto the beach, causing confusion amongst dogs walking on the sand.
Strangely, the piece I liked most was on of the most figurative: Untitled by Alex Lopez, a nude sculpted out of red sandstone. I think it was the combination of the curves and the texture of the sandstone, coupled with the way the sun from the south fell on the sculpture.
It was great to walk through Portobello looking at the art whilst exploring the streets around the front – I haven’t wandered through the streets of Portobello much before, usually heading straight down to the beach (or the bar!).
It was eighteen months since I was last down at Portobello Beach, a place with which I have a strong, deep romantic attachment. Strange that I so rarely go there, really.
It was a showery day. The art is on display in people’s gardens - the Portobello Garden Gallery: twenty six pieces in gardens and three commissioned pieces in public spaces.
It was, frankly, brilliant. It is such a good idea, and so encompassing and embracing, and it worked superbly. Hats off to the organisers and the people who agreed to host bits of art in their gardens.
Wandering around the opening day a couple of weeks ago was just a pleasure. Lots of people were out, braving the showers, and there was a real festive feel – it felt like a party.
I didn’t like all the art, of course, but I don’t really think that was the point. And a lot of it I did like.
Much of the art focused on the “garden” aspect of the spaces. There some pieces which featured living plants – Ettie Spencer’s Smokin’ featured tobacco plants, parts of a large installation called Tobacco House (and if I hadn’t seen the label, I wouldn’t have realised the plants growing in someone’s garden was part of the art) – and many featured plant-forms in sculpture. Jessica Harrison’s Floral displays features casts of body parts arranged as plants, and was very disturbing; other pieces featured ironware-sculptures of leaves and a variety of plant-forms in sculpture.
The pieces that worked best for me were those that worked with the environment. I particularly liked David Faithfull’s Arcade Sandscape on the side of a house.
I also liked Louise Kramer’s Hypothesis 1 - a series of acrylic tubes filled with colour; it just seemed to work, especially in the sun which briefly shone through the liquids.
Much of the art made me laugh or smile. A gnome-like astronaut in the strange environment of a small garden (Untitled by Arran Ross), for instance, or the jousting castles of Scott Laverie’s Things to Come.
Land Stream by Angela Beardley – one of the three big commissioned pieces – stretched across the esplanade onto the beach, causing confusion amongst dogs walking on the sand.
Strangely, the piece I liked most was on of the most figurative: Untitled by Alex Lopez, a nude sculpted out of red sandstone. I think it was the combination of the curves and the texture of the sandstone, coupled with the way the sun from the south fell on the sculpture.
It was great to walk through Portobello looking at the art whilst exploring the streets around the front – I haven’t wandered through the streets of Portobello much before, usually heading straight down to the beach (or the bar!).
