Artist Fiona Hermse worked with members of Portobello Older Peoples’ Project to create a series of mobile, merry-go-round style sculptures based on collected memories of Portobello’s pleasure industry past.

The sculptures were carried as part of an accompanying musical parade from members of Brass Blast and Oi Musica, with a massed band finale led by Marcus Britton.

Project funded by The Robertson Trust.

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Burgoyne films his footsteps walking form one side to the Hastings pier to the other. Of the 15 unique films that result, the participants are each given one recording to follow as a video on their mobile phones. In turn, they lead the rest of the group; the spaces both lost and present expand and contract, as a mobile architectural dance of sorts ensues.

After each participant has led the other members of the space, they leave the elastic space, until there is only two left, then one.

Paradoxically, only by keeping a distance from each other can the shifting, drawn space exist.

In the case of the final two participants, keeping the chord off the sand and maintaining that lost/present space may appear more like a tug of war than a situation of cooperation and togetherness, a manifestation perhaps of being between here and never there.

Pier Dig

Pier Dig set out to move an area of sand relative to the pier that once stood on the site at Portobello. Starting at low tide, battling with an incoming tide in due course, the area of sand is dug, moved and until the sand/ space moved is lost amongst the sand/ space it is already in the midst of. In an absurd act of endurance by reiterating its position in time and space, the pier is dispersed and paradoxically lost in space.

[ below ] 2-page spread from Art Walk Porty ‘Pleasure Ground’ newspaper accompanying Burgoyne’s Pier Dig Portobello Beach (2018) – an interactive walking/drawing game

The project received reviews at The skinny; Phil miller Arts Correspondent Glasgow Herald  and was featured on The afternoon show hosted by Grant Stott, BBC Radio Scotland with Doug Johnstone in conversation with curator, Rosy Naylor.

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Festoon involved two performative walks around Portobello involving the site of Craigentinny Telferton Allotments and Portobello town centre.

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Lewisvale Park Musselburgh

AS I WALK. I GLIMPSE. I HEAR.

The bandstand has long served as the public site for community music occupying many of our public parks and promenades. This project invites us to once again find music as we stroll our public parks, to search out the music we hear, focussing on places where bandstands once stood, and a few that still do.

This project commissioned composer Ross Whyte to create a soundscape, one for each of the eight sites of the bandstands, with vocals recorded and performed with Portobello Community Choir. Lyrics and project concept/curation from Rosy Naylor.

A navigational app was produced working with web developer Steven Park which showed archive footage of many of the sites which no longer had physical bandstands. Whyte’s soundscape was then heard, increasing in volume as one walked their way to the location of the bandstand, or previous site as was the case for five of the sites. Each site was marked by a physical bandstand soundpost created by Orocco Joinery.

Leith Links

Ross Whyte is a Glasgow-based composer, sound artist, and arranger. His composition, titled ‘The Great Exhibition’, is inspired by the early 1900s era of seaside entertainment and end-of-the-pier entertainers such as Harry Lauder.

‘The Great Exhibition’ combines recent sound recording with both archival and newly-composed material to present an abstract reimagining of the kinds of sounds and music that might have been heard at the various bandstands around Edinburgh.

The work contains 8 melodic lines performed by the Portobello Community Choir, with lyrics by Rosy Naylor. For the Bandstand App, the melodies can be ‘unlocked’ by visiting each of the 8 bandstand locations. They can be listened to individually or layered on top of each other, as each new melody is discovered. Together they form a complete song: ‘The Great Exhibition’.

‘The Great Exhibition’ is romantic, sentimental, light-hearted, and hopeful, and aims to evoke an atmosphere of a more innocent time.

Using the App

You can use the App to help you to find each of the bandstand spaces.

Once at each location you can listen to the track relating to that location, as well as view relevant archive material about its history.

Live Performances

with Portobello Community Choir:
Portobello Prom (previous site of bandstand) 1 Sept 2018
Ross Theatre Bandstand, Princes St Gardens Edinburgh 8 Sept 2018

View accompanying newspaper 

Funded By:

The BandStand Project was supported by funding from The Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo Culture Fund and the City of Edinburgh Council.

With support from Orocco Joinery for the building and installing of location soundpost markers.

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