Rooting Art show sparks cultural climate conversations through University collection

January 24, 2025

 

**Pics free to use**

Rooting exhibition University of Edinburgh Main Library

Rooting is a new exhibition at the University of Edinburgh Library and is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.
Rooting features historic and contemporary works by world-renowned artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside other leading artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, including Katie Paterson, Ruth Ewan and Clarissa Gurd.
The exhibition features paintings, video, drawings, printed works and textiles which have been collected by the University over hundreds of years and are also used to support and enhance present day research and learning.
Rooting opens on Friday 24 January, running until Saturday 15 November and is free to visit.
Photo credit Ian Georgeson.

Striking artworks inspired by climate activism, colonial legacies and environmental research are on display in a free public exhibition.

The exhibition opening at the University of Edinburgh’s Main Library on Friday 24 January is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.

The exhibition showcases more than 30 historic and contemporary works, across a range of media including painting, video, drawing, printed works and textiles. Collected by the University over hundreds of years, they are used to support and enhance present day research and learning.

The exhibition includes works by a range of world-renowned artists. These include Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside a number of contemporary artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), including Katie Paterson, Daisy Lafarge and Ruth Ewan.

**Pics free to use**

Rooting exhibition University of Edinburgh Main Library

Rooting is a new exhibition at the University of Edinburgh Library and is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.
Rooting features historic and contemporary works by world-renowned artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside other leading artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, including Katie Paterson, Ruth Ewan and Clarissa Gurd.
The exhibition features paintings, video, drawings, printed works and textiles which have been collected by the University over hundreds of years and are also used to support and enhance present day research and learning.
Rooting opens on Friday 24 January, running until Saturday 15 November and is free to visit.
Photo credit Ian Georgeson.

The next generation of leading artists are championed through works from recent ECA graduates including Clarissa Gurd, Ffion Williams and Valentina Lobos Muñoz.

Thomas Abercromby’s video work Rocabarraigh is inspired by Greenpeace climate activists’ occupation of Atlantic islet of Rockall in 1997, part of a campaign to protect the surrounding seas from new oil drilling contracts.

**Pics free to use**

Rooting exhibition University of Edinburgh Main Library

Rooting is a new exhibition at the University of Edinburgh Library and is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.
Rooting features historic and contemporary works by world-renowned artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside other leading artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, including Katie Paterson, Ruth Ewan and Clarissa Gurd.
The exhibition features paintings, video, drawings, printed works and textiles which have been collected by the University over hundreds of years and are also used to support and enhance present day research and learning.
Rooting opens on Friday 24 January, running until Saturday 15 November and is free to visit.
Photo credit Ian Georgeson.

Valentina Lobos Muñoz’s Speculative Flag addresses a different kind of environmental impact. Using digital printing on silk, she offers an alternative perspective to how land, nature, and people have often been considered as resources or commodities, through a work that incorporates images of plants, animals, and figures from the coats of arms and heraldry of over 60 countries.

Featured artists have also partnered with academics to inform their practice and exchange ideas. Clarissa Gurd’s Caddisfly Larvae details a microscopic image of a caddisfly larva from the River Esk, near Edinburgh, produced using ink made from samples of iron oxide, a pollutant collected from the same site. Gurd worked with Professor Margaret Graham from the University’s Environmental Geochemistry department to research her piece and learn about the role of the Caddisfly in testing water health.

 

Paired alongside artworks the exhibition features audio and interactive elements, which highlight several research, teaching and operational programmes across the University that are contributing to a more sustainable future.Information about the University’s Forest and Peatlands programme is displayed next to Scottish artist Katie Paterson’s Future Library, one of the most unique works in the University’s collection. Paterson has planted a forest near Oslo, Norway, with the intention that the trees will eventually provide the paper for a collection of books to be printed in 2114. Each year for 100 years, one author contributes a text for the collection, starting with Margaret Atwood in 2014.The Forest and Peatlands programme reflects the themes of Paterson's art, through its work to restore peatland and expand forests in Scotland. The project will remove carbon from the atmosphere, increase biodiversity, connect woodlands, improve recreation and scenery for local communities and preserve cultural heritage sites. A recently announced partnership with Kinloch Woodlands is the first in Scotland where a university will help to deliver natural capital benefits, social and economic advantages from nature to a community landowner, repairing what was previously taken from the land and its people.

**Pics free to use**

Rooting exhibition University of Edinburgh Main Library

Rooting is a new exhibition at the University of Edinburgh Library and is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.
Rooting features historic and contemporary works by world-renowned artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside other leading artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, including Katie Paterson, Ruth Ewan and Clarissa Gurd.
The exhibition features paintings, video, drawings, printed works and textiles which have been collected by the University over hundreds of years and are also used to support and enhance present day research and learning.
Rooting opens on Friday 24 January, running until Saturday 15 November and is free to visit.
Photo credit Ian Georgeson.

Exhibition curator Olivia Laumenech said: “Taking inspiration from the meaning of ‘rooting’ – to grow, begin, or connect – our exhibition invites visitors to consider the entwined stories of art, history and nature across time and different artforms. We are really excited to been able to showcase art works from the collection in this unique way and look forward to the conversations we hope it sparks with visitors around some of the most pressing issues facing the world today."

**Pics free to use**

Rooting exhibition University of Edinburgh Main Library

Rooting is a new exhibition at the University of Edinburgh Library and is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.
Rooting features historic and contemporary works by world-renowned artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside other leading artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, including Katie Paterson, Ruth Ewan and Clarissa Gurd.
The exhibition features paintings, video, drawings, printed works and textiles which have been collected by the University over hundreds of years and are also used to support and enhance present day research and learning.
Rooting opens on Friday 24 January, running until Saturday 15 November and is free to visit.
Photo credit Ian Georgeson.
**Pics free to use**

Rooting exhibition University of Edinburgh Main Library

Rooting is a new exhibition at the University of Edinburgh Library and is the first of its kind to explore environmental issues through the University’s art collection.
Rooting features historic and contemporary works by world-renowned artists including Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joan Eardley, Hew Locke and Alberta Whittle, alongside other leading artists who are graduates of Edinburgh College of Art, including Katie Paterson, Ruth Ewan and Clarissa Gurd.
The exhibition features paintings, video, drawings, printed works and textiles which have been collected by the University over hundreds of years and are also used to support and enhance present day research and learning.
Rooting opens on Friday 24 January, running until Saturday 15 November and is free to visit.
Photo credit Ian Georgeson.