A Colourful Edinburgh

You may have noticed I have written very little over the summer and oddly enough it is because I’ve been over- inspired (if such a thing exists?) One of the many benefits of living in Edinburgh is, come August, the International Edinburgh Festival starts and with it comes literally thousands of arts events every single day. There is so much to write about, it’s actually difficult to start.

Being a colour fiend, the first event I targeted was Mirazozo, (images above) a giant inflatable structure designed by the Architects of Air. After removing my shoes, I entered a maze of inter linking tunnels and open spaces all naturally lit but filled with wild dancing colours which blend, fuse and alter as the sun comes and goes outside the structure. It’s an event which takes you directly from a ordinary day right into another world.

In Inverleith House you can seen a collection of Robert Rauschenberg ‘s work from the period (1982-1998) when he was exploring the reflective and textural effects of metal and glass and other reflective surfaces. The work is displayed in natural light and you may notice some green reflection from the Botanic Gardens outside. Some of the work demonstrates his obsession with the discarded object, very relevant, as he famously said “I think painting is more like the real world when it is made out of the real world”.

At The Fruit Market Gallery the work by Ingrid Calame takes a detailed look at markings she finds on the ground in ordinary places such as car parks. She traces detailed lines and takes her tracings back to her studio and layers them up into what she calls her “constellations”. She finds the markings interesting because each mark on the ground relates to a historical event having taken place, whether deliberate or accidental. They are therefore what she terms, “micro histories”. She says, “Finding marks to trace is like finding a snowflake – there is an individual beauty in them”.

Her more delicate work I was unable to photograph but I also enjoyed her scraped and peeling surfaces borne from our industrial age.

As you can see, an overload of colour, form, texture and light and that is only three venues – I haven’t even mentioned Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographic exhibition at The Modern Art Gallery where he has discharged electrical currents through photographic film and produced dramatic and highly innovative work.

Sensory overload is the only way to describe what is happening right now in Edinburgh…and it’s wonderful.