A Moment Before the Tide Sweeps In
There is something tidal in the way that cities change. A wave of sudden motion and structures are pulled up: homes are built, lives are built, space becomes place and place is given purpose.
A pause (some longer than others) --- and the tide sweeps out: demolition, buildings laid flat, reassessment, change. Pause again. Limbo.
But here the space does not wait empty, and for a moment the land again becomes wild. In the clamour of physical change traces have been upturned, washed together and pulled apart. Walking the rubble of a space in transition is akin to combing the shingle on a beach. Amidst the dust and gravel you find details of lives imagined: a severed wire, an unlucky scratchcard, litter.
This project documents the moment of flux between one wave and another in the Edinburgh district of Fountainbridge. Once farmland, then industry and now this: a quiet tension between the past and the present.
- Exhibited at Edinburgh Napier University in May 2015 & as part of Free Range at The Old Truman Brewery in June 2015. Accompanied by two filled display cabinets, one including objects found on site, one including information about the site, archival images of its uses and plans for its future.