Enormous picture collages, giant earthwork sculptures and photo-realistic watercolours are brought together in an exhibition exploring the legacy of loss and inheritance.
Four projects from major international artists are presented under the collective title, The dead don't go until we do, at the University's Talbot Rice Gallery.
The title comes from Scottish poet and former Scots Makar Jackie Kay’s Darling, a moving tribute to a friend who died, inspired by the continuing influence of lost loved ones.
Each artist looks to previous generations, reflecting on how what has been lost, erased or excluded in the past, can guide and empower communities today.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is a Polish-Romani artist, educator and activist, best known for large-scale textile collages that combine portraiture and storytelling to recreate scenes from everyday life.
Her works challenge stereotypical and historic representations of Roma people, transforming their stories with strength and dignity by using materials from the clothes and homes of her community.
By sewing together worn fabrics – such as patterned skirts, floral dresses and aprons – she creates picture collages up to five metres in size, with images depicting elements of Roma life.
Her showpiece, Out of Egypt, responds to myths about the origins of Roma people in Egypt, which were used by Europeans to exoticise communities. In this artwork, stereotyped imagery is replaced with scenes of normal life.
Maria's Romani Family, 2022, was created for the 59th Venice Biennale, when Mirga-Tas became the first Roma artist to represent a national pavilion. Huge in scale at three by five metres, it depicts a portrait of a Roma family recreated from a black-and-white photograph, in a celebration of continued resilience.
Elsewhere, Amol K Patil’s installation creates a dark, enclosed setting evoking urban India. The immersive artwork is punctured by willowy bronze sculptures, humanlike casts and looping films.
Who is invited to the city? explores migration and the experiences of working-class communities, with Patil using his art and poetry to share the struggles of those living in poverty in Mumbai.
From a family of artists, Patil’s work follows his late father and grandfathers’ bold writing and performances that challenged British colonial rule and rigid Indian caste system.
Guided by their legacy, he tells the lesser-known stories of those trapped by unrealised dreams and social hierarchy.
Photo-realistic watercolours and detailed pencil drawings shine light on communities that have been sidelined or erased from mainstream society in Kang Seung Lee’s eye-catching work.
A multidisciplinary artist born in South Korean and based in Los Angeles, Lee begins his work with extensive research, bringing to life marginalised communities by filling in the blanks of their story.
Erasure held like a fierce lantern pays homage to artists and sites significant to local communities, including new work commissioned for this show linked to Edinburgh’s LGBT+ history.
Lee’s exhibition also includes graphite drawings after Peter Hujar and Alvin Baltrop, photographers widely recognised for their black-and-white portraits of LGBT+ life.
In Mafolofolo by MADEYOULOOK, ancient earthworks are carved from wood to create a physical landscape for visitors to immerse themselves in.
The installation recalls the displacement of the Bokoni people in northern South Africa and asks questions about how a deep connection to the land might be recovered.
MADEYOULOOK is a collaboration between artists Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho, inspired by everyday black practices that have been historically overlooked or considered inconsequential.
Their work invites visitors to reconsider how Black lives and histories are represented, and advocates for Indigenous land rights by creating artworks shaped by lost ancestral lands and repressed histories.
Visitors can walk or sit within the installation, immersing themselves in the sculpture and its meditative soundscape, where recordings of birds, wind and storms, merge with the music of protest songs.
This exhibition is a celebration of living that passes from generation to generation, something timely in a period of rapidly shifting, shallow political narratives. To these artists, this might mean carrying an obligation - to remember those who have passed away or by reasserting their experiences in histories written by others, often excluded because of violence or oppression. But it also means being supported by the memory of our ancestors, forebears, family and friends, inspired by their legacy or by continuing their acts of resistance.
The dead don’t go until we do is open from now until 30 May 2026, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am - 5pm.
Talbot Rice Gallery, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL.
Admission is free.
