The Gardens

The Gardens, Edinburgh is a group of five artefacts – consisting of three folios of drawings, a set of paper objects in a wedge-shaped box, and a publication made from linen. It was produced as an investigation into the history of the Royal Scottish Academy and the adjacent Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, and originally exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 2015. The output was commissioned by Visual Art Scotland 2015, for their annual exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy. It combines drawings, paper folding techniques and digital printing with historical and contextual research to investigate two key aspects of the site: first, the development of the linen industry in Scotland during the eighteenth century; second, the layout of the gardens, particularly the relation between the formal design arrangements and the growth of indigenous plants that infiltrate planned spaces. These interests tie into Hyslop’s longstanding research into the social and industrial history of Scotland and its impact on the land. Works from the exhibition were purchased and exhibited by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the National Library of Scotland.