Postgraduate Art students take their learning on the road

A student wearing a blue and white patterned dress and red gloves is looking at a ceramic object on a tray on a desk in front of them. They are standing in front of an ornate fireplace and the room is panelled with wood.

'Lobster in a China Shop', performance with porcelain sculpture by San Zhang, at Hospitalfield, March 2025.

In February, students from the Masters in Contemporary Art Practice took part in two projects away from their studios at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA).

The students staged a pop-up exhibition across four rooms of Inverleith House, situated in the heart of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE), and later took up residency at Hospitalfield in Arbroath for four days.

Corpse Flower, the exhibition at Inverleith House, invited visitors to pause and consider the coexistence of fragility and resilience within plant habitats and ecosystems where both beauty and decay appear to exist in harmony, demonstrating an eternal cycle of growth. Like the Titan Arum plant (known as the Corpse Flower) that only flowers for a day, this exhibition was “a moment of bloom, exposed and shared, that ended after 24 hours”.

At Hospitalfield, the students had to produce work and problem solve in a very unique environment. They developed site-responsive artworks that engaged the heritage rooms, the gardens, the coast and local histories. During their residency, they worked with the natural resources of the site, as well as the limitations presented by being away from the city of Edinburgh and ECA.

An iron staircase has lit candles on three steps. The candles are shaped like people and some of them have melted.

'Wenke’s Mold', wax sculpture installation by Wenke Xu, at Hospitalfield, March 2025.

Two students are sitting in ornately carved arches carved in a sandstone wall. They are each holding a multi-pointed star-shaped circle in front of their faces.

Performance ushers with metal masks by Leyang Li, at Hospitalfield, March 2025.

Learning professional practice through site-responsive projects

Preparing students for life after graduation by giving them the skills, experiences and knowledge of making and presenting work at a high level has always been a high priority at ECA.

Site-responsive opportunities often present students with unique challenges and real-world limitations such as working with bio-security issues, ethics and responsibility in accommodating public scrutiny safely and in an inclusive manner. These are serious issues and concerns that have been and continue to be at the heart of teaching at ECA.

Four students are looking at a scultpure that looks like a small tree. The tree is covered in pastel-pastel coloured pipe cleaners and they are also lying in a ring on the floor.

Students from the MA Contemporary Art Practice at Corpse Flower exhibition, Inverleith House, February 2025.

A painting of two bodies which are part skeleton with a very large locust on the wall behind. The bodies are holding up banners.

'DANGER! DO NOT OPEN', painting by Athip Rianloetrattana, at Corpse Flower, Inverleith House, February 2025.

Art lecturer and programme academic Dr Andrew Sneddon explained that these types of projects are an essential part of semester 2 teaching, where students are encouraged and supported to consider responding to a variety of different sites, locations and places. 

He said: “The students were given an open brief to simply respond to any aspect of the Botanic Gardens that attracted their interest. Eva Madden, the garden’s programme officer, visited the students at ECA and talked about the history of Inverleith House and its role within RBGE. Afterwards, the students were invited to visit the gardens, where they studied the qualities of the galleries, the RBGE archive, and the work carried out by staff.”

Programme director Christine Ellison said of the Hospitalfield residency: “Freed from our everyday pressures and responsibilities, we engaged methods of collaboration, interpretation, deep listening, embodied thinking and shared reflection on chance encounters, to develop an exciting performative event where the audience were invited to explore the site and discover the interventions that had taken place.”

Benefitting staff, students and partner organisations

Engaging in site-specific projects brings benefits for everyone concerned.

Andrew said: “Testing students’ ability to work to tight deadlines, to work together collaboratively as a team, are invaluable outcomes. To be part of the generative process of seeing an idea emerge, change and alter through to completion is a real privilege for staff.”