Home an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy

Home - exhibition 

Saturday 16th April to Wednesday 25th May 2016

@ Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh 

I rather suspect that I got into this exhibition under false pretences, although I went in via the front door, and paid for my ticket (£5 including catalogue) the gallery slowly filled up with the Edinburgh great and good, so my moleskin jacket perhaps fooled the young lady on the front desk into thinking that I was an RSA member who had been specially invited to the opening day. Certainly after I went in, someone pointed out to her not to let anyone else in. 

Pretty much the entire RSA gallery upstairs and downstairs was filled with material, predominantly architecture. Whereas degree shows are very heavy on models, and light on actual built buildings, this was heavy on built buildings and relatively light on models. There were a lot of large photos and drawings of rather nice houses. 

The exhibition was around the theme of home,which allows a pretty wide remit. To be frank most of these are not really homely homes, more the sort of designer / Grand Designs, sort of aspirational second home that we might all aspire to. The photos of actual rooms from social housing struck a discordant note reminding me of the sort of house that I actually do live in. 

The exhibition took a wide brief, and handled this with optimism and panache. Particular standouts for me were the room including a model of the room, including the model of the room, and the clear acrylic model of a home with a central spine of services. 

In addition to the architectural material, there were artworks on display, including four by John Byrne, the self portrait was competitively priced at £22k, and a short corridor of paintings of unbuilt buildings. 

Normally I try and snap a few photos, but it was forbidden to take photos, so I have included some photos from the rather good catalogue.