30 May 2019
This month, we have a special behind-the-scenes visit to the new Collective gallery on the historic Calton Hill, the birthplace of astronomy and timekeeping in Edinburgh. Collective opened the doors of its new home in November 2018 in a project which saw the restoration of the City Observatory and City Dome and a new purpose-built exhibition space.
Collective see their new space as a ‘new kind of observatory where visitors are invited to look at, think about, and produce contemporary art.’ Their programme includes exhibitions, walks and events. We will be joined by Siobhan Carroll, Head of Programme at Collective who will talk about the project, show us the new spaces including the telescope which is not normally accessible by the public and will introduce the current exhibitions.
Workers! is a new film by Swedish artist and filmmaker Petra Bauer and SCOT-PEP, a sex-workers led organisation in Scotland. Filmed in the Scottish Trade Union Congress, the film documents and gives a voice to sex workers who demand to be seen as experts in their own labour and lives.
Also on show is a new work by Glasgow-based artist Kimberley O’Neill which explores the connection between energy, technology and the body. Enigma Bodytech follows a female protagonist’s road trip through the California desert and Silicon Valley.
27 July 2017
For our summer Spin event before the August break, we will be heading up Calton Hill to visit Collective. Set up in 1984, Collective supports new work by artists who are at a pivotal stage in their development.
We will be discussing a new film and installation by Glasgow-based artist Ross Little with Siobhan Carroll, Head of Programme at Collective. The work considers different forms of globalized labour found in the ship breaking yards of India and on board a transatlantic cruise ship, contrasting the experiences of the employees and the passengers. The work is presented in an installation created to reflect the interior design of cruise ships.
We will also meet Lori Anderson, Head of Development, who will give us an insight into the redevelopment project of the A-listed City Observatory complex due to open in 2018. Collective are the custodians of this important piece in the nation’s heritage and will reopen with visual arts and learning spaces – the first time that the site will be open freely to the public in its history.
27 February 2014, 6-7.30pm
Our February Spin event will be a discussion at the new Collective gallery spaces at the City Observatory on the historic Calton Hill;
We will be discussing the two exhibitions on show: Bertille Bak’s film Faire le mur and Catrin Jeans’ Recreationally Surviving The Great Outside installation. We will be joined by Collective Programme Manager, Siobhan Carroll to talk about these exhibitions, the move to the new site and their plans for the future.
Collective are pleased to present work by Bertille Bak for the second Factish Field exhibition. Bak is an artist based in Paris who works predominantly in film; her work draws on observations of the communities she works with. Her 2008 film Faire le mur presented here follows the inhabitants of an old mining village in Northern France through their last revolt against development and the subsequent raised rents. Factish Field is a year-long collaboration between Collective and London-based LUX looking at artist films and anthropology.
Catrin Jeans’ installation Recreationally Surviving – The Great Outside is the first exhibition in the 2014 Satellites programme (the re-named New Work Scotland). For this Jeans has created a playful installation of a staged wilderness in the gallery. Centered on a series of pursuits that were originally needed for surviving ‘in the great outdoors’; such as hiking, fishing and animal tracking, Jeans’ new work explores how ‘traditional’ skills have been adopted as leisure entertainment and weekend escapism.
