Edinburgh Art Festival

A co-commission with Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2021 Commissions Programme.

Known as a skilled storyteller with a knack for unearthing little-known or underappreciated knowledge, over the last decade Sean Lynch has employed an ethnographic approach to explore the highways and byways of cultural history. His retellings sway between the anecdotal and informative, fully embracing the allegorical potential of his subjects and emphasising the nature of the places he works in. From finding the remains of the defunct DeLorean car factory in the Atlantic Ocean to organising an exhibition of archaeological forgeries held in Britain’s museum collections, his videos and installations point to the latent energies and undercurrents of history, and its ability to examine and critique contemporary life.

Lynch’s new project casts a spotlight on Edinburgh’s public monuments and sculptures, today subject to ongoing civic processes to have society acknowledge and understand the legacies of history. His installation at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop explores the use of folk traditions, the making of sculpture and the parables held inside monuments themselves, which can empower social change and produce a public realm implicitly open to everyone. Extensive fieldwork on this theme is seen in a new video artwork, while a new series of sculptures resuscitate the use of Coade Stone, a now obsolete building material with a secretive recipe rediscovered by ESW’s technical team over the last year.

The title Tak’ Tent O’ Time Ere Time Be Tint is a memento mori phrase which urges those who read it to make the most of their time on earth. The phrase, along with a number of other sculptural interventions were made by builder Stanley Sutherland to his workshop walls on Newhaven Road, Edinburgh.

Commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Supported by the PLACE Programme, a partnership between Edinburgh Festivals, Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and Creative Scotland. With additional support from Culture Ireland, the University of Aberdeen, National Museums Scotland and Museums Galleries Edinburgh.

Artist Video Videography by: Rachel McBrinn; Interview by: Jim Cowan.