Edinburgh Street Art

Edinburgh: Capital of Scotland, Home of the Scottish Enlightenment, Host to one of the world’s biggest festival jamborees and a World Heritage site. For a city that has only around 600,000 residents, it offers one of the richest cultural feasts that one can subscribe to, with every form of Art to be found…. Well nearly every form.

I would like to raise the issue of Street Art, viewed by some as Graffiti and others as Vandalism - see Evening News, 4th Oct 2013, is this not one of the more acceptable forms of expression rather than the crude tagging that might have been visible? How is this LEGAL expression to be viewed – such as to be found in Carlton Road or Old Tolbooth Wynd?

(Examples of Edinburgh Old Town Street Art are to be found on another page)

The skills of those that produce works such as this, have the potential to improve the dead spaces that can be found, especially in the Old Town. To answer critics - is this 'Vandalism’ not a more contemporary expression of earlier modern art forms (e.g. cubism, surrealism). Moreover, could Fleshmarket Close become a visitor attraction as a result of quality Street Art?

Could there be a visitor trail? 

Having visited and photographed all 76 Royal Mile closes over the last month, I have found a number of hidden treasures. I have also seen the eyesores. Could controlled Street Art transform?

I do not propose a free-for-all. Instead, that there is an opportunity to provide local artists with space to express themselves in the unconventional manner of their specialised art form. ‘Legal’ spaces in controversial spaces. Street Art has artistic existence in other cities.

A version of this was published in the Evening News, 9th Oct 2013 link

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