Having had first class train journey from Leuchars to Edinburgh station I hopped out of the train to find the sky was grey and it was raining again. First stop was the tourist information office to try and find out was on. Unfortunately it was more geared up to the visitor that was going to stay rather than the casual day tripper. Having found this I decided to head straight for the Scottish National Gallery to find out what exhbitions that had on.
Next stop was the exhbition of engravings by William Blake. It was a surprise to find that William Blake, famous for his poetry, was also an accomplished engraver. It always suprises me how detailed engravings are and that it was all done without the aid of modern digitisers.
The previous time I had been up I had managed to catch a very interesting exhibition at the Dean Gallery of Cartier-Bressons’s work. This time I found two exhibitions that caught my eye. The first was the Andy Warhol exibition and the second one of engravings by William Blake.
Two exhbits of the Andy Warhol exhbition really stood out to me. The first was the silver clouds installation. Large silver pillow like helium ballons have ben allowed to room a room aided by a couple of fans. The ballons are of varying bouyancies so some float, others rest on the floor and other hover and are taken by the fans on circuits of the room. It was very interesting seeing the reflections of the room in the ballons as they roamed about. One had managed to escapeto the room next door without the netting to shepherd it. The second exhbit that really caught my eye was the series of Screen Tests that were playing. Watching the slowed up film where a blink of an eyelid was really noticable and the slow change of expression quite easily explains how these might have been mistaken for stills. Others items that I remember are the Pop Art works of Marilyn Moroe produced after her death the sequence of pictures featuring Jackie Kennedy after the assasination of JFKand the series of photographs stiched together like books.
Fopp still exists. I thought they had all disappared but no, at least one still exists up in Edinburgh and parted me from some of my money. Idecided to by Paulo Nuttin’s album (not the one with live from the Isle of Wight seeing as I was there instead), The Editors new album and Emma Pollocks as they were playing it in the shop and it sounded good.
CEX was a quick stop to buy Libery City Stories.
At the Scottish Potrait Gallery I popped into look at in at had a look at the exhbition of Crayon paintings and
Photos of India. I was amazed at the Crayon paintings as at first glance I would have mistaken them for oils with the subtlety of the rendering of the subjects.
The Photos of India were also fascinating with the renditions of India in the 1800’s before the photographic camera became mainstream. The size of the some of the temples was very impressive.
Whilst wandering up the Royal Mile I spotted a sign for an exhbition on Antartica at the Scottish Poetry Library. It was quite strange wandering round a place dedicated to poetry that was so different from the likes of the Poetry Cafe in London with instead of works being read they had been gathered so they could be borrowed.
The exhibition itself was scattered around the library consisting of photos of Antartica with stiched on pieces of paper representing books. On the maps these formed trails perhaps of where the creator had been on her travels in Antartica. It was strange looking at how blue, white and dark the photos were. It is strange to think of a landscape where these are the dominant colours.
I also had a look at the small Police Museum and its story of the Edinburgh police force. Quite surprising the story of the forger who made his own coins.
The Museum On the Mound was a last minute spot of mine before I needed to head for the train station. Certainly it was intriguing to find that HBOShad dedicated a museum to its history. A very different story is told there compared to the Bank of England Museum. There it is much more about what the Bank does today and what money is. The Museum on the Mound I found was much more caught up in how the various banks in Scotland had been involved with the development of the country and its seperate history to that of England despite the Act Of Union.
Whilst taking the train south I glimpsed out of the window the Angel of the North. It was certainly striking seeing it watching those departing the North for the South. Perhaps next time I might visit it and see what vista it gazes out upon.
