Pencil Bag

Pencil Bag by April Hay in response to Martin Creed’s Work No. 1059, The Scotsman Steps (2011)

April Hay is a textile artist who works in response to Scotland’s geology with natural fibres such as silk and bamboo. Her fabrics are digitally printed using environmentally conscious inks. Hay was invited to create a textile-based response to Martin Creed’s Work No. 1059, also known as The Scotsman Steps.

Work No.1059 was commissioned by The Fruitmarket Gallery as part of Creed’s solo exhibition Down Over Up which was presented at The Fruitmarket Gallery in the summer of 2010. The Scotsman Steps are an important part of Edinburgh’s cityscape: they link the Old and New Towns and have historically been considered as a road. They are looked after and maintained by the City of Edinburgh Council.

Before restoration by Edinburgh World Heritage and City of Edinburgh Council, the Scotsman Steps were extremely dilapidated, and vulnerable to misuse. The Fruitmarket Gallery suggested commissioning a public artwork for the Steps as part of the renovation, to help change the public perception of them, and to fulfil the Gallery’s mission to make contemporary art freely accessible, bringing it out of the gallery to engage people where they are.

From the beginning, Creed considered the Steps as a thoroughfare, proposing to resurface them with different and contrasting marbles from all over the world, each step and landing a different colour. The idea turns around a familiar material (though not one normally associated with Edinburgh) used in a familiar way. It acts as a sampler, introducing 104 different marbles, putting the material as well as the visitor through its paces. Creed himself has described the work as a microcosm of the whole world – stepping on the different marble steps is like walking through the world.

Hay has documented Creed’s marbles in her textile-based medium, and created a sustainable and eco-conscious response in objects you can use in your every day life.