Edinburgh Fringe (Part 2)

Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Part 2)

Now some of the photographs I took had no rhyme or reason to them, they were either things I thought were beautiful, funny or inspiring. So the beginning of this post is going to somewhat stray from tradition a little as I wanted to include them so that you, dear readers might come to see a slightly more personal side to me..

Now I know this sounds ridiculous but the photograph below I took in the Anthropologie store in Edinburgh. When I saw this I immediately fell in love as it so reminded me of something that has come straight out of Tim Walker's world (if you have read my previous posts you will know I much I am in love with his work). 

Myself and Anthropologie have a fairly new relationship and previously I had never really given it a huge amount of thought as I thought it was wildly over priced. However as soon as I entered their store in the centre of Edinburgh I was enchanted. The whole store made me feel like I had stumbled into a Grimm's fairy tale and everything from the door knobs to the walls are so beautifully imagined that I honestly felt as though I was walking around a giant art installation.
Below are some other items in the store I fell in love with!

Now back to the culture! The next gallery pit stop we made was to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery that was exhibiting photographs by Man Ray. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is one of the most breathtaking buildings in Edinburgh and the inside certainly does not disappoint. The exhibition was held in the Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery which is one vast room split up with large wooden blocks that created the illusion of being more intimate. These smaller areas then focused on different places and times in Man Ray's career. 

The majority of the photographs were black & white however there were a few exceptions. What was interesting about the subjects chosen for the exhibition was that all the portraits were of people who were 'relevant' in his life which included friends and muses, but left out family.

The final piece of art I explored when in Edinburgh was the Peter Doig exhibition 'No Foreign Lands' at The Scottish National Gallery. I had never heard of Doig before but I was completely blown away, so much so that I bought one of those extortionate exhibition posters!
Most of his paintings reflect the time he spent in Trinidad, this can be seen in particular through the colour and rapid brush strokes.

There is certainly a distinct psychedelic effect to his paintings that gives the viewer the feeling that they are part of a hallucinogenic experience and demands us to suspend our disbelief. There are aspects to his work that show that Doig is stylistically similar to the likes of Edvard Munch in terms of his confrontational view of life as well as Gauguin shown in the vivid colour and depictions of the locals in Trinidad. 

I could not recommend Peter Doig more as a painter. If anyone feels the need for escapism track his works down and envelope yourself!

As always a pleasure, your host,

The Ravens Eye Critic