Scots artists float waterway trail plan

Published on Wednesday 24 September 2003 01:00

SPECTACULAR works of art could be installed along the new canal link between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Richard Demarco has already won the backing of British Waterways, the company responsible for the running of the Millennium Link project, to create a waterside art trail between the two cities.

He has also persuaded one of Scotland’s foremost artists - Ian Hamilton Finlay - to agree to produce work for the scheme, which aims to emulate the works of art by the side of the M8.

Mr Demarco said he envisaged some of Scotland’s leading artists and sculptors producing work for sites along the Union Canal, which runs through Edinburgh, and the Forth and Clyde Canal, both of which link up at the Falkirk Wheel in Stirlingshire.

British Waterways said it was keen to promote the waterways as "not just for people who are interested in boats".

Mr Demarco said: "I firmly believe that the future of the visual arts in Scotland may lie along this canal link. I’ve been asked to become an adviser to British Waterways to help them bring a cultural dimension to the canal network and it was my idea to bring in Ian Hamilton Finlay.

"In my opinion he’s Scotland’s greatest living artist, if not Britain’s. He’s agreed to be involved in this and we’ve been told we can go ahead and start planning to get it off the ground.

"The way I see this progressing is for him to be commissioned to produce several works and for his involvement to be the catalyst for other artists of the highest calibre to contribute as well.

"I want this to appeal to the kind of people who are going to the National Galleries of Scotland, who at the moment would have no inclination to go to the canal."

Mr Hamilton Finlay, who was born in the Bahamas in 1925, came to live in Scotland as a child. He has shown work in some of the world’s top galleries, including the Tate. But he is probably best-known for Little Sparta, a farm and garden in the south of Scotland, which he began transforming into a neoclassical sculpture park in 1966.

Mr Demarco and Mr Hamilton Finlay, along with officials from British Waterway and the Waterways Trust Scotland, a charity which develops canal-linked projects, recently toured the canal network which makes up the 78 million scheme to allow boats to sail between Edinburgh and Glasgow for the first time in decades with

Mr Hamilton Finlay said he was keen to contribute "several works" to the project, which is expected to be supported by a mixture of public and private sector funding.

British Waterways has already shown its willingness to embrace the art world by commissioning a giant sculpture of the notorious murderers Burke and Hare, which has pride of place beside the Union Canal at Wester Hailes.

A spokesman said: "We want to attract people to the canals for all sorts of reasons and show that they are not just for people who are interested in boats."

Wendy Law, visual arts officer for the Scottish Arts Council, said: "It’s a fantastic opportunity for the pool of talented artists in Scotland to play an active role in making the environment more visually appealing and interesting."