Follow in our Footsteps: Fruitmarket Gallery’s Schools Programme exhibition

Augmented reality artwork, corrupted selfies, hidden content and an installation hanging from washing lines, a time-lapsed film projected onto the cast impressions of Edinburgh’s Old Town and sound experiments as a playable interface …

These are some of the artworks created by pupils from eight Edinburgh schools which will be on display at Custom Lane in Leith this weekend as part of The Fruitmarket Gallery’s Making Matters and SmART Thinking Schools’ Programmes.

Exhibition Fri 25 Oct 12-5pm, Sat 26 Oct 10am-5pm, Sun 27 Oct 11am–4pm

Custom Lane, 1 Customs Wharf, Edinburgh, EH6 6AL

Over the last few years the Fruitmarket has been building relationships with primary, secondary and special schools local to the gallery and in Pilton and Muirhouse – Drummond Community High School, Craigroyston Community High School, Pilrig Park School, Prospect Bank School, Royal Mile Primary School, St David’s RC Primary School, St Mary’s RC Primary School and St Thomas of Aquin’s RC High School. 

Since August, pupils and teachers from the schools have been working with artists Louise Fraser, Ewan Sinclair and Sean Young from Screen Education Edinburgh (SEE), exploring ideas generated by The Fruitmarket Gallery’s commissioned artwork Night Walk for Edinburgh by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

Night Walk for Edinburgh takes participants for a walk through Edinburgh’s Old Town, with the artist’s voice in their ears and a screen in their hand. As you walk, listen and look, magical scenes appear on a screen in your hand, unravelling a disjointed tale – part game-playing, part surrealistic poetry – layered with history, invention and memories.

Pupils experienced the walk as part of the project, drawing on its themes to produce their own work for Follow In Our Footsteps, an exhibition of interactive installations, film, drawing and sculpture.

Fiona Bradley, Director of The Fruitmarket Gallery said: “This is the fourth year of the Making Matters programme working with schools local to the Gallery and the second year of SmART Thinking working with schools in Pilton and Muirhouse.

“We know that art can help us understand the world in which we live, prompting discussion and helping to develop technical, critical and social skills. These programmes aim to embed creativity in the curriculum and close the poverty related attainment gap. I hope that the children and young people have enjoyed engaging with the art we have shown them, and I cannot wait to see their thoughts and ideas come to life in the exhibition.”

S2 and S6 pupils from Drummond Community High School were inspired by the playful gaming and use of poetry and text to guide the way in Night Walk for Edinburgh.

They experimented with augmented reality, making corrupted selfies and vlog style video portraits to create an interactive gallery of overlapping truths. Visitors are invited to scan their work in the exhibition to reveal hidden content. 

S2 and S3 pupils from Craigroyston Community High School developed camera, sound & editing skills working closely with Sean Young and Jennifer Souter from Screen Education Edinburgh.

Each pupil took on key responsibilities to create a short interactive and immersive film, enabling them to gain valuable knowledge in negotiating, communication and teamwork from through the practical application of filmmaking.

Mixed year pupils from Pilrig Park School created impressions of Edinburgh’s Old Town in blocks of clay after experiencing Night Walk for Edinburgh. At school they cast the clay blocks in plaster and created a graffiti text work recorded through time-lapse film. Their work forms a multimedia installation, with the film projected onto the cast impressions of the Old Town. 

Mixed year pupils from Prospect Bank Primary School used sound and mark making to explore communication, navigation and mapping during their experience of Night Walk for Edinburgh.

They made chalk trails through the Old Town and created immersive orchestral drumming sequences. They played their school environment like an instrument, capturing it with audio recording, capacitive touch microcontrollers and conductive materials. Their touch sensitive interactive display brings together their individual sound experiments as a playable interface. 

P6 pupils from Royal Mile Primary School made matchbox memory boxes of their experience of Night Walk for Edinburgh. Their collaborative installation for the exhibition consists of three interactive blackboards representing Edinburgh’s past, present and future, imaging how people lived or how they will live in the future and what they might be doing in the city. Future jobs include a rocket driver, future detective and dragon groomer. 

Two classes of P7 pupils from St David’s RC Primary School took part in dynamic hands-on workshops which provided a practical introduction to filmmaking.

The pupils developed their ideas for the script, experienced using a film camera and sound equipment and they made their own costumes and props. Their short interactive film invites the audience to ‘follow in their footsteps’ on a journey through their school, revealing some of the fascinating things that the pupils get up to.

P5 pupils from St Mary’s RC Primary School were inspired by how Night Walk for Edinburgh made them look at and feel differently about the architecture that surrounds them. They created a single screen interactive film based on the interesting layout and hidden stories of their Victorian school. 

Advanced Higher pupils from St Thomas of Aquin’s RC High School created their own three-word brief to challenge them to create work to advance their portfolios for applying to art school.

Inspired by the dance scene in Night Walk for Edinburgh, each student created a text or image-based work on a single bedsheet. The pieces will come together in a collaborative installation hanging from washing lines.

This year the exhibition will be held in Custom Lane in Leith instead of at The Fruitmarket Gallery as work has now begun on our refurbishment and extension.

The Gallery will reopen in 2020 with reinvigorated spaces in the existing building and a new inspirational space for creative, collaborative working in the building next door plus new facilities for learning and participation.

There will be a special preview of the exhibition in the morning of Friday 25 October and it will be open to the public from 12 noon on Friday 25 October until Sunday 27 October at 4pm.