Edinburgh Art Festival

Martin Creed Work No. 997, 2009© Martin Creed. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Barbora Gern

Down Over Up
Down Over Up A major exhibition of work by Martin Creed, one of Britain’s most highly-regarded and popular artists. Creed makes work, which captures the public imagination while also attracting critical acclaim for its generous, accessible approach. His work most often takes the form of interventions into a space, re-ordering materials which are a familiar part of everyday life. In 2001 he won the Turner Prize with Work No. 127: The Lights in a Building Going On and Off.

Consisting of recent and newly-commissioned work, this exhibition focuses on stacking and progression in size, height and tone – stacks of planks, chairs, tables, boxes, pieces of lego; series of paintings; works making use of the musical scale. Creed talks about these works in terms of a picture of growth: showing process, progress and things in movement. A highlight of the exhibition is a new commission in which Creed turns the Gallery’s staircase into a synthesiser, with each step sounding a different note on the scale as the audience walks up or down.

To coincide with the exhibition, The Fruitmarket Gallery and Sadler’s Wells are presenting Creed’s Ballet: Work No. 1020 at the Traverse Theatre from 8 to 15 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A piece for dancers, live band, art and the artist, this funny and thoughtful work speaks eloquently of the ordering and re-ordering of the everyday which gives Creed’s art its particular magic.

Sponsored by Bloomberg.