Edinburgh Festivals, Art Festival

Unseen China

edfest.tv - video

1 Sep 2008

600 documentary photographs taken by 250 Chinese photographers, reflecting daily life in China against the background of modernisation, radical cultural upheaval and urban economic boom over 50 years

ReSeArch: RSA Residencies for Scotland

edfest.tv - video

1 Sep 2008

Highlighting the work of RSA Residency participants who have completed RSA opportunities in 2007/08

Scotland: A Changing Nation

edfest.tv - video

1 Sep 2008

From the First World War to the present day, Scotland: A Changing Nation traces the varied experiences of people living and working in Scotland through first-hand accounts, significant objects and film

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

edfest.tv - video

28 Aug 2008

A rare chance to experience the work of one of the most internationally respected artist partnerships, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

Scavengers

edfest.tv - video

27 Aug 2008

100 clues. Nine hours. Register a team and set out in search of fame, glory and £2,000 cash.

Tracey Emin

edfest.tv - video

26 Aug 2008

A unique chance to see the first major retrospective of one of Britain's most celebrated and controversial artists.

Treasure Hunt

Rosalie Doubal leads a team around the city on a scavenger hunt in the name of art

21 Aug 2008

9am City Art Centre Equipped with a bike, a laptop, a compass, eight sandwiches and some anoraks, my team – a dyspraxic researcher, a father-of-one, a diehard Buckfast drinker and a token ginger – joins a long queue of eager scavengers. Neither the…

Alexander Heim: Doves

Harnessing pigeon power

21 Aug 2008

Lyrical and sophisticated, young German artist Alexander Heim’s first solo UK show exhibits a fascinating lightness of touch. Doves pivots around a video of pigeons at a London Costa Coffee branch. Exquisitely-composed photographs of fragments of…

Chad McCail

Puberty, print, perversion and compulsory education

21 Aug 2008

What a remarkable and strange artist Chad McCail is. By his own admission half of his output tends to be peopled by ‘robots, zombies or wealthy parasites’, while the other half looks like loose leaves from a particularly perverse Ladybird book. Both…

Dovecot: Weaving Influences

21 Aug 2008

An appreciation of the historic art of tapestry is not strictly necessary to enjoy this, one of two shows launching Dovecot as a new exhibiting space for art, craft and design. The twist here is that all the works were designed by leading modern artists…

Hitlist: Visual Art

21 Aug 2008

Return of the Soul: The Nakbah Project Remarkable installation of massed, suspended wax figures, commemorating the violent ethnic cleansing of thousands of Palestinian people after the 1948 establishment of the Israeli state. WASPS, Patriothall…

Hugh Brady: 39

Thought-provoking installation art

21 Aug 2008

The venue for this exhibition is Brady’s studio: a converted stable, which visually correlates to the photographer’s studio in Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic 1960s film Blow Up. From the starting point of the 39 on the exterior door, this is a…

Tea-leafs ahoy!

21 Aug 2008

Rumours abound that a Tracey Emin polaroid was pinched from the Gilded Balloon Loft Bar, last week. The untitled display of ten self-portraits, consisting of enlarged Polaroids of the artist were hung up by pieces of velcro in the bar. Now only nine…

The Embassy: Mutatis Mutandis

Good work, bad show

21 Aug 2008

When the Embassy emerged several years ago, it was as a playful, bright-eyed young gallery with a serious interest in art, as demonstrated by the strong exhibition programme. It seemed as though Edinburgh was finally going to get an ambitious artist-run…

Harry Potter, Hippogriffs and beyond…

edfest.tv - video

18 Aug 2008

Free exhibition. Cliff Wright (Harry Potter cover artist) and friends present artwork for sale/interaction.

Bond Bound

edfest.tv - video

18 Aug 2008

Commemorating Ian Fleming's birth in 1908 and charting the role of artists and designers in creating and defining the Bond look.

The Golden Record - Sounds of Earth

edfest.tv - video

15 Aug 2008

Artists come together to remake the original Golden Record - a phonograph record launched into space in 1997 - containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. Over a hundred artists have created new work to…

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller

14 Aug 2008

Over six pieces comprising kinetic sculpture, projections, visceral jokes, total immersion sensory works, whole room architectural installations and, with ‘Opera for a Small Room’ (pictured), an awe-inspiringly perfect sound sculpture, Cardiff and Bures…

5 Questions - Spam the Musical

14 Aug 2008

5 words to describe SPAM the Musical Viral, punk, trojan, fabulous & fucked up. 4 places we might be able to catch it Where you least expect it. Or www.spamthemusical.com , if you’re lazy. 3 other EAF exhibitions you’re looking forward to…

Big Things on the Beach: Garden Gallery

Public art, right on your doorstep

14 Aug 2008

As far as public art initiatives go, it doesn’t get much more DIY or community-focused than this. Twenty-nine separate works, most of which are hosted in the front gardens of Portobello houses, and all of them part of a scenic walking tour of the…

Eskimo

New exhibition space warmed up by a fine group show

14 Aug 2008

Having made their debut last Festival with a show at West Barns Studios, Polarcap return to East Lothian for this debut exhibition at Eskmills’ new gallery. Although the exposed roof beams give the impression that the gallery itself hasn’t actually been…

Frances Richardson: Playing Against Reason

The great global economic gamble, in heavily symbolic form

14 Aug 2008

Take Frances Richardson’s drawing and sculptures (the latter she refers to as ‘walk-in drawings’) literally and it seems the world is falling down around us. Or at least the financial world is, and that might not be too far from the truth. But how…

Gledinbow

Glasgow and Edinburgh reconciled through art?

14 Aug 2008

‘gleDinBow’ is pitched as an exhibition that has paired artists from Edinburgh with partners from Glasgow as a way to explore ‘sibling rivalry’ and attempt to cross perceived artistic boundaries between the two cities. In practise there is little…

Sanford Wurmfield: E-Cyclorama

Rainbow in the round

14 Aug 2008

New York based artist Wurmfield’s new creation is a sight to behold. He channels the colour theories of the great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell by way of Goethe, the Scottish Enlightenment (there is a reason this work is being premiered in the…

Richard Hamilton - Protest Pictures

edfest.tv - video

13 Aug 2008

The paintings, collages and installation in Protest Pictures have been specially selected by Richard Nesbitt for the exhibit at Inverleith House.