Surely Spurtle is not alone in recalling the horror?
That moment when a fragile tome was selected from the shelves of an antiquarian bookseller and promptly hurled itself from the grasp.
The way time slowed down between fingertips and floorboards.
The speechless agonies, the ghastly anticipation of impact and consequences.
How fitting, then, that this work – ‘Lost for Words’ – should appear in McNaughtan’s Bookshop & Gallery on Haddington Place, where it forms part of a small but intriguing exhibition by Laura Gill.
Gill graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA in Fine Art in 2011, and has been studying the timeless quality of human movement ever since.
Through paintings, photographs, drawings and digital images, she draws on Futurist, Celtic and Art Nouveau influences to capture the beauty and paradoxes of stopped motion in repeated shapes and patterns.
Gill’s works are poised but playful, exquisite studies in the geometry of human action.
We particularly liked the still dynamism of ‘On the Track’ (above) and ‘Sea Traffic’ (below) – the latter image first suggested by the wavelike back and forth of pedestrians viewed from the Scott Monument.
Her exhibition Travellers’ Tales continues at McNaughtan’s (3a–4a Haddington Place), Tues–Sat, 11am–5pm, until 9 January. You can visit her website here.
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Lyn Simpson Brought back a horror moment as a student - where I dropped a spring binder in the middle of the street while walking home in a billowing downpour. Had to dance around trying to pick up all the pages before they became sodden rags and each time I reached for one the wind would kick in and lift it out of reach. Aagh.