EACH Thursday of its run, the Edinburgh Art Festival will host a range of curated tours, taking you on a “culture crawl” around some of the city’s galleries, while guests enjoy drinks provided by Edinburgh Gin and Belfield Brewery.
Many of the pieces use their mediums to tackle social issues such as immigration and cultural appropriation.
Starting at the Queen’s Gallery, the tour walks to Parliament Hall and stops at Nathan Coley’s exhibit – ‘The Future is Inside Us, It’s Not Somewhere Else’.
Coley used wallpaper from the 1830’s to create something entirely new. His exhibit depicts the story of immigration to America, creating a social commentary on the world around us.
His piece ‘Looking for Luck’ is a quote taken from a news interview of a Guatemalan father talking about his journey to America.
The tour continues on to Dovecot Studios where guests are taken on the ‘Julie Cope’s Grand Tour’ – a response to the Grayson Perry exhibition Dovecot is currently exhibiting.
However, tour guides gave no context before or after this tour within the tour and the media and message felt completely different from the rest of the tour.
The 4 large tapestries were interesting as they depicted the fictional tale of an “every-woman”, Julie Cope.
However, the lack of information given by the tour guides confused a few people in the group, who were confronted by a woman crying and holding up a house.
This performance by Tamara MacArthur was very attention grabbing, but it felt as if a little more background before or after this point in the tour could have added real value.
Turner Prize winner and self-styled “unapologetic fetishist”, Grayson Perry’s work is the final stop on Julie’s Tour.
Walking to Talbot Rice Gallery, which is hosting Samson Young’s ‘Real Music’, was a good note to end the night on.
The exhibit features a range of interactive pieces which use sound and images to interest the viewer.
Young plays with the topic of doubt and the act of unintentionally giving something a new dimension.
Overall the evening was an enjoyable night, and a good way to explore some of the work the Edinburgh Art Festival has brought to the city for 2019.
