Edinburgh’s acclaimed arts centre Summerhall Arts is set to host four solo exhibitions, all free to enter, by artists whose work advocates for social, political, environmental or cultural change, under the theme of CATALYST: Art as Activism.
Molly Wickett‘s display All Day, Waiting For Another Sun to Rise uses the term apocalyptic meaning ‘uncovering’ or ‘revealing’ as a springboard for an exploration of enquiring work that examines what happens ‘after’ a supposedly world-ending time, using her personal experience to articulate change and otherness.
Iranian-born artist Taraneh Dana‘s exhibition A Heart in Exile comprises three bodies of work tracing the inner landscape of migration – its fractures, its expansions, and its quiet, unresolvable tensions – what is lost and what is possible.
Scottish multi-disciplinary artist Eilidh Appletree‘s installation articulates how capitalism is driving the loss of biodiversity through its emphasis on extraction, in industrial agriculture and aquaculture to produce perpetual profit at the cost of the planet.
Kasia Oleskiewicz, who works between Poland, Switzerland, and Scotland, is researching how feminism and animal rights intersect – examining how shared spaces can feel unsafe, commemorating victims of violence in shared spaces – and the idea that any body, human and nonhuman, can feel safe anywhere they go – a species-inclusive utopia. The exhibition, Any Body Home, features work developed during the 2024 Hugo Burge Foundation x Summerhall residency Art as Activism.
