Earth Matters, Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Interwoven - Stevi Benson

 

Recently I took a side trip from my holiday in Fife to see the Earth Matters exhibition at Inverleith House Gallery in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.  This exhibition is inspired by James Hutton, born 300 years ago in Edinburgh, who was a geologist, farmer and thinker and changed the way we understand the earth beneath our feet. He alerted us to the fact that the surface of the earth is continually changing as a result of natural process that take place over enormous timespans.  The exhibition showcases work by over 30 artists who are inspired by the earth and its processes.

Here's just a small flavour of the exhibition...

50 Shades of Scottish Soil - James Hutton Institute
(and they're not all grey!)

I particularly liked that the exhibition walls were painted in soil colours from different areas of Scotland, from deep red (Merkins, West Dunbartonshire) and terracotta/russett (Dundonell, Ross & Cromarty) through deep blue/grey (Clockhill, Aberdeenshire) to ochre (Lephinmore, Argyll & Bute).  The National Soils archive is held in the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen and holds over 60,000 samples from 15,000 locations.

The Unconformities (Jedburgh, Castle St, Salisbury Crags) - Louise Bennetts

Louise Bennetts has handpainted her fabrics with soil and stitched them to represent her interpretation of John Clerk's illustrations in Hutton's book "Theory of the Earth". The pieces do indeed look like a cross-section of geological strata...

The Unconformities (Jedburgh, Castle St, Salisbury Crags) - detail - Louise Bennetts

Maria McStay has embedded and coloured her vessels with a variety of rock fragments collected from Gullane Bay, East Lothian.  She hopes the added handles suggest a shared responsibilty for the land...

Collective Futures - Maria McStay

Ilana Halperin's print uses ink coloured from soil from James Hutton's Farm in Slighhouses in the Scottish Borders...

James Hutton (Parent Material) - Ilana Halperin

In late 1990 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham visited Tentsmuir in Fife and photographed the fungi which she later painted...

Mushroom Series No 6 - Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

Constanza Dessain's fascinating work records the process of osmosis, leakage, decay and rot of fruits and vegetable scraps...

Studio Compost (detail) - Constanza Dessain

Stevi Benson's fabulous papercuts (below and top image) represent the structure of tangled mycelium (fungi) threads beneath the forest floor...

Interwoven (detail) - Stevi Benson

Kevin Andrew Morris has made a series of spade heads from clay dug from a former brickworks in Aberdeen, reflecting on past industry and past agricultural methods...

Field Work - Kevin Andrew Morris

July Fields by June Eardley captures the corner of a coastal field, probably near Catterline in Aberdeenshire where she lived in later life, showing lots of species.  Current industrial farming methods and the removal of hedgerows reduces the ecodiversity...

July Fields - Joan Eardley

This earth has been salvaged from the eroding coastline at Buckhaven in Fife where otherwise it would have been lost to the sea, echoing Hutton's assertion that the surface of the earth is continually changing.  I love the way River of Earth has been sieved and presented... 

River of Earth - Becky Little & Tom Morton

Fiona Young's prints look so real you feel you can almost touch the plants and soil. Young is trying to draw our attention to the importance of soil to both our physical and mental wellbeing.  We rely on it to grow food to keep us fit & healthy and to support the natural environments that we enjoy to be out in...

Earth Works - Fiona Young

There are several cafes in the Botanic Garden.  I tried the Gateway Cafe at the main entrance and had some excellent soup followed by coffee and cake - yum!

Coffee & Cake - Gateway Cafe
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

This exhibition is on until Sunday 1 November 2026 - definitely worth a visit.  I have only shown a small part of what's being exhibited - go see!