Linen is perhaps the worlds oldest textile and is derived from varieties of the Flax plant.
Here we take you on a sensory journey, describing the growing cycle, relaying the traditional stages of production and illustrating how this textile is manufactured today using sight, sound, smell and touch. With image, song, scent bottle and touch tray, we pick up the threads of cultural union that tie Scotland into Europe from plant to product.
Image courtesy of Maureen Hammond
Our Linen Stories exhibition links art, design and industry to explore a rich heritage, new work and insights into contemporary materials and manufacturing at home and abroad. These are set out in two sections below:
The exhibition has evolved through the generous participation of many people during our two year research period and keeps evolving as more contributors offer us their stories. For our Exhibition in Edinburgh we designed additional stations to reflect this:
Exhibition Design by Lorna Brown at Edinburgh Dovecot and Nick Sargent at Leith Custom Lane.
Installation by Eric Schumacher and Oisin Gallagher at Edinburgh Dovecot, Nick Sargent at Leith Custom Lane and James Mackay through our 2018 tour.
Maxime Ragni of K.I.S.S. Design Photography captured images throughout the tour and Abid Nazir created our photomontages. Ben Hanyecz developed Archive Listing and Carriage for this and future Exhibition Tours. Each Linen Story was printed on linen paper specially commissioned from Alison Newman of PULP in Glasgow.
Special thanks to Kate Greyner, Susan McAteer, Gemma Butterfield and Celia Joicey of Dovecot Studios and to Colin Sanderson and Jenny Bruce of Artiscience Library at Summerhall.
For details of our Edinburgh Events schedule, visit our 2019 Events pages.
