As Edinburgh Art Festival celebrates its twentieth birthday, it also marks the tenth anniversary of PLATFORM, the initiative set up to showcase early career artists in the context of a festival environment. This year’s cohort features four artists whose work spans a variety of mediums and has been bubbling for some time now.
Where Alaya Ang works with durational performance, writing and other forms, Edward Gwyn Jones focuses mainly on moving image, text, and printmaking. Tamara MacArthur, meanwhile, uses intricate handcrafted installation activated by performance, while Kialy Tihngang works with sculpture, video, textiles, animation, and photomontage.
Selected by a panel led by EAF curator Eleanor Edmonson, the Platform artists will this year respond to the 2024 festival’s themes of ‘intimacy, material memory, protest and persecution’. The results will be seen on the fourth floor of the City Art Centre, which this year is set to become EAF’s home. This puts Platform at the centre of the festival programme more than ever before.
‘The number of applications we received this year was incredible,’ says Edmonson. ‘I think that's probably a sign that there aren't enough opportunities for early career artists, or it could be a sign that a lot of artists are moving to Scotland and making it their home, which I hope is the case.
‘We chose Alaya, Edward, Tamara and Kialy for the way in which they approached the themes of the festival, and the ways in which they might connect. I think all four artists are pivoting on emotion and that need for coming back together. In different ways, they're all resisting that kind of new capitalist busyness and overstimulation that we're constantly facing, and they're all asking people to slow down a little and connect to intimacy, emotion, and rest. I think that grounds them all together quite nicely.
In terms of life beyond PLATFORM, alumni over the last decade include Renèe Helèna Browne, who came through the scheme in 2018, and this year has her own EAF solo show. Emelia Kerr Beale and Jonny Walker (2022) are part of GI in Glasgow this year. Saoirse Amira Anis (2022) has presented a solo show at Dundee Contemporary Arts. And so on.
As Edmonson explains, however, PLATFORM is about more than just the work.
‘I think the act of artists meeting at a similar career point is crucial,’ she explains. ‘An important part of PLATFORM is that you're growing a network and a support base. What's really lovely is that the network just carries on building. It feels like there’s been a lot of peer support down the generations of PLATFORM. That's created a cohort of artists who speak to each other and support each other.’
This sense of empathy has enabled the artists to tackle some challenging subjects.
‘The artists have shown huge skill in being able to broach the topics that they're talking about with such care,’ says Edmonson. ‘There's a willingness to be open in a way that is constantly evolving, and the way in which people check themselves against each other is strong this year.
‘The artists are also embracing different forms of display. This year's artists will be performing at different events, including a closing event on Friday 23rd August. The way the artists are gelling, and the interlacing of themes feels really exciting. That's something we definitely want to take forward in the future. It's pushed the artists to think more as a collective group rather than single entities, and I think the exhibition will benefit from it.’
Platform24 at Edinburgh Art Festival, City Art Centre, 9th-25thAugust
The List Edinburgh Festivals magazine 2024, July 2024
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