SALT exhibition

Art Walk Projects’ SALT exhibition connects global questions to specific local communities, histories and geographies through the unifying theme of salt. In Portobello, salt was manufactured from the 1600s until 1953 using coal to evaporate seawater, and the material traces of these saltpans can still be traced. Nearby, salt marshes provide dynamic and important ecosystems that dampen the impacts of coastal storms. Salt marshes are integral parts of tidal wetland systems, which sequester half of all global marine carbon – yet these are now being threatened due to rising sea levels, and the ensuing erosion of coastlines and coastal plant ecologies. Artists have been invited to develop place-specific responses to the ecologies of the coastline of Portobello, paying particular attention to coastal erosion, sea water salinity, local salt marsh habitats, the materiality of salt, and industrial histories of salt production.

The SALT exhibition will run from Thursday 1st to Sunday 11th September 2022, opening from 11am to 5pm on Thursdays and Fridays and 11am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays at the Art Walk Hub at 189 Portobello High Street. It will feature work created by residency artists Joanne Matthews, Mahala le May, Tonya McMullan and Natasha Thembiso Ruwona as part of a one-year programme of art/science residencies and outdoor public art commissions connecting Edinburgh’s coastal ecologies with the global climate crisis. It will also feature work from the PORT walking art project, in which artists Henna Asikainen, Louise Barrington, Rosy Naylor, Elspeth Penfold and Stephanie Whitelaw connect four different coastline localities across the UK (Portobello, Edinburgh; Tankerton, Kent; Holy Island, Northumberland; and Scapa Beach, Orkney) and consider the impact of climate change on each.

Art Walk Projects is an organisation based in Portobello that curates and commissions environmental public art projects focusing on Edinburgh’s northeast coastline. Founded in 2015, it delivers a range of residencies, exhibitions and activities throughout the year to encourage dialogue around our oceans/seas and their relationship to the climate emergency. The SALT exhibition is part of ART WALK PORTY Festival 2022, an annual two-week festival of contemporary art that celebrates the local artist community of Portobello each September. ART WALK PORTY Festival 2022 will feature exhibitions, installations, live performances, film screenings, workshops, open studios, art in shops, book launches, and artist-led walks and talks. The full programme of events can be found here: www.artwalkporty.co.uk/salt2022.html.