Origin

Su Grierson & Diane Maclean. Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. 2001.

Museums store the histories and origins of our cultural heritage. In this project the artists explored the origins of the new Museum of Scotland building itself.

Returning to Clashach quarry near Elgin where the beautiful stone of the fascade was quarried, Su Grierson and Diane Maclean filmed the rock being blasted, excavated and worked and have recorded the primal nature of the place. They visually link the beauty of the worked stone with the ruggedness of its original location and the aggressive actions of its extraction.

This work functions by interlinking and overlapping the site, the process and the building, and reminds us that even at the core of our national, urban and cultural life lie dynamic links with the very heart of our landscape.

The silent Origin video was projected onto the Museum facade during darkness. Within the Museum a version with sound was played on a monitor throughout the day.