As a group of artists, we selected two venues for Just to Say. Edinburgh College of Art is large, open and white cube and the space within the Cowgate area of Edinburgh; an abandoned shop/office, is smaller, intimate but more architecturally complex. In using a venue in the city we are aware that many artists/curators have chosen to work with projects and exhibitions in alternative sites in public. Exhibitions in public spaces are easily accessible to anyone and therefore have the potential to reach far beyond the relatively selective art audience. The Cowgate space has potential for us in an opportunistic sense as it stands in a busy and popular area of the city.


The Cowgate space has three rooms. My works will be placed on the Cowgate shop floor but will be contained to the one room, which is the less architecturally obtrusive. As my work is quite organic and raw I do not believe it would work well against some of the awkward geometries of the other spaces. I would prefer to present them in a more traditional space as don’t want the space to dominate but rather for the work to engage and maintain the viewer’s attention.

See above a proposal for the layout of our work at this venue.


History of the Cowgate:
The cowgate- name derived from the cows led down the street on market day. As it is beneath the elevated streets above, has a tendency to be dark and gloomy. From the mid 18th century to the wars the cowgate was a area typically where the poorer community lived, an overcrowded slum area.