Giant inflatable sculptures from acclaimed Glasgow-based artist duo Walker & Bromwich and a selection of work from students at Edinburgh College of Art fill Talbot Rice Gallery.
Undergraduate Emilie Fielding's installation explores living history, looking at the looks at the traditions and folklore of beekeeping.
These two new exhibitions launch the first shows presented by Talbot Rice Gallery’s for its 50th anniversary celebrations.
In Searching for a Change of Consciousness, artists Walker & Bromwich bring together a selection of their remarkable inflatable artworks from the last ten years for the first time, in a survey of their work inviting audiences to imagine better worlds.
Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich are best-known for their large-scale sculptures and build festival-like spaces where communities can come together on issues such as the climate emergency and social justice.
The Walker & Bromwich exhibition features the enormous Serpent of Capitalism, created as a symbol of modern anti-capitalist struggles.
The inflatables are created to be both sculptures and symbolic objects that can be used in ceremonies, representing positive and negative forces. Throughout the exhibition, the artists question how nature can be better represented in human affairs.
This exhibition features three key pieces created in collaboration with groups including working-class communities in Wales, anarchists in Denmark and Indigenous representatives from the Colombian Amazon.
Visitors will first encounter the enormous Serpent of Capitalism sculpture, setting the stage for an enveloping exhibition incorporating influences from ancient myths to modern-day anti-capitalist struggles.
Artists Walker & Bromwich pose with their giant inflatables in the Georgian Gallery of the Talbot Rice.
The forest-like space, housing the Encampment of Eternal Hope, features voices from Minga Indigina and the Organisation of Indigenous People of the Colombian Amazon, who can be heard talking about the pressures modern developments have placed upon their communities and the need for positive change.
The power of nature over industry is examined by the jagged sculpture Llechi A Llafur // Slate or State, symbolising Talcen Mawr, a huge pillar of volcanic rock which halted work at what was then the world’s largest slate quarry in late nineteenth-century North Wales.
Contemporary art student Keziah Greenwood presents an imagined theatrical production about classical monsters reflecting negative ideas about women.
In the adjoining space, Trading Zone 2025 is the Talbot Rice Gallery’s biennial interdisciplinary student exhibition and includes work from 11 young artists selected by the gallery.
The exhibition gives the emerging artists the opportunity to develop their professional practice and have their works featured in an established gallery.
A term coined by historian of science Peter Galison, “Trading Zone” describes how different worldviews can meet within scientific collaborations, with the exhibition featuring some of the most innovative creative practices across Edinburgh College of art and the University.
Wenqi Zou studied traditional Chinese medicine and considers this through the lens of classical western mythology in her installation.
The exhibition includes work from students from a range of disciplines, bringing fresh perspectives to issues such as conflicts and nationalism, healthcare, satellites and space, archaeological sites, mythology and the culture wars.
Together these artworks weave nuanced stories about the global, local and diverse issues concerning creative practitioners today, showcasing the next generation of talented visual artists.
Trading Zone 2025 features works from current ECA students Emily Beaney, Ross Dickson, Victoria Evans, Emilie Fielding, Keziah Greenwood, Inayah, Hanayo Kubota, Rita Mahfouz, Eilidh McKeown, Maria Schiza and Wenqi Zou, from areas including fine art, design, illustration, painting, sculpture, contemporary art practice and creative writing.
