Tag Archives: textiles

The dead don’t go until we do

Join us this month as we make our way to Talbot Rice Gallery for their group show The dead don’t go until we do, where we will be joined by curator James Clegg. 

The dead don’t go until we do brings together four artists who channel the strength of family, friends and communities. It is about the collective power that runs across generations. The title of these collective exhibitions takes its inspiration from a line in Jackie Kay’s poem Darling. 

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas celebrates her ancestral Roma community. Through colourful fabric collages, she takes control of the images made about people, past and present, to overcome centuries of prejudice.  

Amol K Patil follows his late father and grandfathers’ bold writing and performances. He uses his art and poetry to share the struggles of those living in poverty in the City of Mumbai.  

Kang Seung Lee begins with research into historical archives, looking at the way marginalised communities are erased. But he uses the gaps and absences to make space for both the living and dead, in this exhibition linking with historical queer sites across Edinburgh.  

MADEYOULOOK is a collaboration between Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. They explore the landscapes shaped by the frequently displaced Koni people in South Africa. Working from the ancient earthworks left by the Bakoni, they think about alternative relationships to the land. 

Clearing: New Textile Work by Gail Turpin

This month we will be heading to Mote 102 for the first time to see an exhibition of new work by artist, maker and designer Gail Turpin. We will be joined by the artist and gallery-founder Alice Bain. 

A not-for-profit, changing space in Leith, Mote 102 hosts local artists, makers and gardeners with an eye to the wider world. Exhibitions, events, residencies, shop pop-ups take place throughout the year. 

Gail’s new exhibition Clearing, features new textile works made from unravelling and using some of the precious pieces of fabric, paper and objects, accumulated by her family and in her own life. She says of her work: 

 ‘Something happens to us when we clear out parents’ house after they’ve gone. The responsibility of dismantling a life or lives, to the person who says what stays and what goes, what is precious, what should be retained, loved and appreciated.’ 

Gail studied graphic design at Edinburgh College of Art and her career in design has taken her to London, Amsterdam and back to Edinburgh. In all areas of her practice, she’s come to work intuitively – whether making a monoprint collage, designing a textile, making a functional object, working with type or creating an image.

Alberta Whittle: created dangerously

This month we will be heading to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) for their new exhibition Alberta Whittle: create dangerously. We will be joined by curator Leila Riszko, whom some will remember as Leila joined Spin in 2022 for both our visit to Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life and Conversations with the Collection. 

 In her works, Alberta addresses the brutality and harm caused by colonialism, the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people, and the ongoing climate crisis. Through richly symbolic artworks, she pulls apart the belief that ’racism and police brutality is [just] an English problem or an American problem’. Instead she underlines Scotland’s complicity in the structures of white supremacy. Often deeply personal, weaving stories of family and belonging, Alberta ultimately offers a message of hope, asking us to imagine a world outside of these damaging systems and ways of thinking. 

This is the largest showing of Alberta’s works to date, with sculptures, digital collages, watercolours and new paintings, made especially for the show, taking over the ground floor of Modern One. Alongside never-before-seen artworks, the exhibition offers you the opportunity to see Alberta’s extraordinary tapestry, Entanglement is more than blood, and film installation,Lagareh – The Last Born– which the artist presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022, commissioned by Scotland+Venice.