Nicky Bird: Beneath the Surface/ Hidden Place
Stills Gallery 10 May - 20 July 2008

Stills Gallery on Cockburn Street in Edinburgh is funded by the Scottish Arts Council through its Flexible Funding programme.

Beneath the Surface/ Hidden Place is a major new Stills commission exploring the physical and emotional effects of economic change and regeneration.

Gathering together family snaps, historical records and oral accounts, Nicky Bird has been collaborating with individuals and groups from communities across Scotland to unearth personal histories whose physical traces are on the brink of erasure to create a new body of photographic works.

Involving a process lasting three years, Beneath the Surface / Hidden Place investigates the simultaneously precarious and powerful nature of memory while exploring how photography and archaeology can be incorporated in both literal and metaphorical ways to speak of ‘history’.

In addition to the exhibition of new photographic images at Stills, Beneath the Surface / Hidden Place will include a series of temporary, site-specific works featuring individual family photographs in the areas where the collaborators are based.

Introduction from Nicky Bird:

‘The project was originally inspired by Prestongrange, where I volunteered on an industrial archaeological project. Whilst brushing dust off stones of what once was a harbour, I listened to local people talk about a wreck they played on as kids, which they said was still under the surface of where we were working.  Then one day a local man brought in a family snap of lads swimming in the harbour.  This snap, held in his hand, against the now reclaimed land brought this past to life for me. That sparked the idea for the project off. 

Ghost villages, like in areas such as Doon Valley are traces of a past, so what may look like a bunch of bricks has huge social - and for some - personal significance. Multi-tower blocks have been demolished and left without a trace.

But you need to work closely with individuals from the community to interpret and understand what’s happening in parts of Scotland, and how this shapes people’s sense of identity and history. So that’s why there are two authors to every piece of my project. I hope the images do more than document – I hope they evoke questions for the viewer - about their own relationship with the past.’ 

Collaborators: Alexander Brown, Karen Hamilton, Drew Johnstone, Mary Kennedy, Jan McTaggart, Martin Peter, Mark Scott and Lesley Weir. Sites: Ardler (Dundee), Craigmillar (Edinburgh), Dalmellington (East Ayrshire), Paisley (Renfrewshire) and Prestongrange (East Lothian). Associated Events: Processes & Practice Saturday 28 June 3 – 5pm, Free An afternoon of short presentations and open discussion focusing on Nicky Bird and Stills resident Rhona Warwick’s working processes. Refreshments will be served. The Magic Lantern at Stills  Wednesday 2 July 7.30pm, £3/£1.50  An independent film night showcasing innovative new short films. The Magic Lantern present a special programme of short films selected in response to the themes of memory and history explored in Beneath the Surface/ Hidden Place.