MATTHEW RICHARDSON'S PM REVIEWED BY RHYS FULLERTON
PM is a digital animation, displayed in Collective’s temporary space beside the City Observatory. The flat screen monitor is bolted directly onto the window, providing an alternative view of Calton Hill and its surroundings.
On view is a spinning wind turbine (another energy-themed piece to match Vanessa Billy's Sustain, Sustain next door). The digitally produced moving images are created out of algorithmic binary to produce representations of two decipherable objects that will be read within the context of the scenery beyond.
Wind-turbine power is increasingly looking like the future, but it is a sustainable energy source which has attracted much criticism. Richardson’s positioning of the screen on the window could well be trying to tell us something as the viewer is forced to look at it and imagine that the animation is part of the real backdrop.
If Calton Hill were being redesigned today, the view from the exhibition space could well be very different – and a wind turbine placed at the top of the hill would not be beyond the realms of possibility. Despite being supportive of this energy source, I’m glad Cockerell and Playfair’s National Monument got there first.
Matthew Richardson’s PM – produced with the assistance of Thee Tosayanond – is part of the Satellites Programme 2014, a development programme for emerging artists based in Scotland. It continues until 2 November.
Image credits: Matthew Richardson, PM installation view, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Collective, Edinburgh. Photo: Tom Nolan.
UPDATE (21.4.16): Images removed at artist's request.