Edinburgh Printmakers is staging two exhibitions by London-based artist Susan Aldworth, whose work explores our sense of self.
An immersive installation, BELONGINGS challenges anti-immigration narratives, aiming to create pathways for belonging for people seeking sanctuary. It featuring the imagined contents of a suitcase the Susan’s grandmother brought with her when migrating from Northern Italy to London in 1924, featuring thirty-five individual antique clothes, suspended in mid-air, highlighting the transitory and emotional nature of an uprooted life.
The work has developed in response to the current discussion, tensions and research into global migration, forced displacement, sanctuary and mental health, where political rhetoric ignores individual stories of hope, change, refuge and difficulty. The exhibition looks at Susan’s grandmother’s migration in the context of the large number of women currently seeking refuge from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Syria today: it is driven by her desire to share how each refugee or migrant has their own story to tell and her distress about the current hard-line anti-immigration stance taken by the UK government and the growing anti-immigrant rhetoric in the media. This is accompanied by a series of artworks created by migrant groups based in Edinburgh, created in response to the installation.
The other exhibition, Modern Alchemy, is a new series of prints based on Susan’s collaboration with Dr Amanda Jarvis of the University of Edinburgh, whose research in sustainable chemistry explores ways of making chemical synthesis greener, including recycling and replacing precious metals with cheaper, more abundant alternatives.
Susan’s work mirrors Dr Jarvis’ ambition to reduce, recycle or replace expensive metals, by switching from expensive copper and zinc etching plates to cheaper steel plates. By adding chemicals into the aquatint resin before it was fired onto the plate surface, Aldworth has captured a moment of chemical reaction – a visual equivalence of catalysis.
The exhibition formed part of the Edinburgh Science Festival 2026 and is supported by the University of Edinburgh and ASCUS Art & Science.
In addition to the above, Susan has created five new prints, as part of Edinburgh Printmakers’ EP Editions programme, connecting with the theme of identity and migration, and expanding her existing practice by experimenting with new print processes. The programme invites established artists to collaborate with the Printmakers’ world-class studio technicians to broaden their artistic practices by exploring techniques.
Edinburgh Printmakers supports the Own Art finance scheme, which makes purchasing artworks more affordable through payment by instalments.
