edinburgh_trip
hey there! i mentioned about the edinburgh trip in my log and so this post is about the trip.
it was march 24 2023, i woke up to find my original train to haymarket was cancelled and had to book another one. this was not fun as i live in the shire and was taking a train to aberdeen aswell. i booked the next train (it was more expensive than my previous train but c'est la vie i say). i got on the train and got to haymarket in one piece. i actually spent the journey doing 2D work.
first stop was st mary's episcopal catherdal near haymarket which housed the a+e project space where our guide johnathan baxter resides. our seminar/workshop was reflective our role as creatives, how we can thrive in unorthrodox non-art spaces and whether we are explorers, reporters or activists. we saw some of pieces of work within the church as well the beautiful mural around the choir practice space. some of the pieces within the church are at odds with the values of the church and johnathan's faith isn't 1-to-1 with the church but his projects and his pieces are about causing disruption, change and progression to a space seen as regressive and judgement. as i left, the 1pm organ practice was undergoing which was lovely to hear.
i'm not religious at all, i was raised agnostically and was surrounded with a lot of queer family and friends, most of whom never followed faith. however, i remember having to do prayers in primary school and the christmas/easter church services we had to do through my school years. i would say i watch the simpsons like a good christian reads the bible and christianity is a very big part of that show funny enough plus we live a culturally christian society as we celebrate easter and christmas and talk about giving up x and y for lent. religion (especially christianity) is quite complex in that people have used it as a tool for hate, abuse, discriminaton and evil overall and the dark things that have went on in certain institutions but others used faith and religion to better themselves and help the world.
me and some of the cohort stopped for Thai food before our next stop which was, was the Talbot Rice Gallery at UoE where we saw their current exhibiton, The Accursed Share. the exhibition saw themes of debt and finance especially within context of colonialism/post-colonialsm. an interesting piece was Morya Davey's Coppperheads showing hi-res scan of various US pennys and you see the various states of decay on Lincoln's head. the terra0 project were AI and Crypto were used to help a forest self-sustain is interesting but curious as it uses Ethereum, which is infamous for its high energy usage.
finally, was the fruitmarket gallery right next to waverly with the poor things exhibition, an exhibition made in responses to classism in UK contemporary art where artists whose work. mostly sculpture with some video work here and there. not as cohesive as what we saw in the Talbot Rice, but vibrant and chaotic, which i frankly like.
on the way to edinburgh, i listened to the just-released album Scaring the Hoes, Vol.1 by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown, two rappers whose work i've followed for years. The title is an in-joke relating to online music discussion where both artists' style of hip-hop is experimental, rough, abrasive and just plain weird and that playing their music at a party or club would kill the mood compared to more easy-listening and digestable rappers like Drake. on the way home, i watched Whisper of The Heart (1995), a film by Studio Ghibli directed by Yoshifumi Kondō with Miyazaki writing the screenplay. a nice coming-of-age flick. i used this trip as an opportunity to meet my sister as she's doing her phd. in the city and we went to holy cow near st. james' for grub where we got nice vegan burgers and catched up before i headed back home.
the end of semester 2 is with the intermin show and so i am focused on getting work together and done for this. next post will be related to it. overall, see you guys next post!
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