Art Festival ready for a brush with the unusual

Published on Wednesday 27 May 2009 09:37

GRAFFITI in the portrait gallery, an exhibition in a lighthouse and a giant omelette in Princes Street Gardens will feature alongside work by world-famous names at this year's Edinburgh Art Festival.

The 2009 programme, unveiled today, features major exhibitions by leading British and international artists, as well as work by a new generation of talent, and will be spread across 50 galleries as well as public spaces.

One of the most unusual events of the 2009 festival will be Rough Cut Nation, which will see a team of street artists let loose on the interior of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The artists will use the full armoury of street-art techniques, including spray paint, stencils, stickers, emulsion, rollers, brushes, pens, digital projections and fly-posters to create the temporary installation on Scottish history in the gallery, which closed for refurbishment earlier this year.

Richie Cumming, an outreach officer with the National Galleries of Scotland, said: "Because the portrait gallery was shut it meant there would be no exhibition there this year, and so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to work in what is an incredible space."

The launch of the festival, on 5 August, will see hundreds of people invited to crack an egg to help create a giant omelette in Princes Street Gardens.

The bizarre evening celebration will also launch artist Aleksandra Mir's How Not to Cookbook – Lessons Learned the Hard Way, which saw 100 people from around the world give their advice on how not to cook.

This year's festival will also see the Scottish premiere of the Venice Suite and other works by Sir Peter Blake RA, one of Britain's most famous international artists and the father of British Pop Art.

Best known for creating the cover of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper album, Sir Peter's Venice Suite comprises 20 new screen prints inspired by his recent experiences in the Italian city.

Other highlights will include a major retrospective on Grangemouth-born artist Alan Davie, who this year celebrates his 89th birthday. The exhibition will present examples of his work spanning seven decades and including sculpture, painting, tapestry, rug making, jewellery design, printmaking, drawing, photography, poetry and experimental jazz.

There will also be exhibitions in the Sierra Metro Gallery, recently opened in the old Granton Lighthouse.

Work by international artists including Eva Hesse and the late Paul Nouge will be on show, while subtle propaganda posters by Edinburgh artist Kate V Wilson will be scattered around the city.

There will also be sculpture by New Zealand artist John Edgar, who will create a series of works from stone collected in various historic quarries across Scotland, and young American artist Andrew Ranville will create a new large-scale sculpture from reclaimed timber in Gayfield Square Gardens.

Joanne Brown, director of the Edinburgh Art Festival, said:

"The EAF offers a vital platform for Edinburgh's galleries and artists to stage their specially curated exhibitions for the Capital's summer festival season."

This year's festival runs from 5 August to 5 September.