Fruitmarket Segments
The voices and ideas of some of the most inspiring contemporary artists and creative people working today, direct from Fruitmarket in Edinburgh. Fruitmarket is a free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh providing inspiration and opportunity for artists and audiences. We programme, develop and present world-class exhibitions, commissions, publications, performances, events and engagement activities, opening up the artistic process. Creativity makes space for meaning, and we create a welcoming space for people to think with contemporary art and culture in ways that are helpful to them – for free.
Episodes
Where We Meet Land
A panel discussion between the moving image artists who contributed to the Fruitmarket show Where We Meet Land - environment and ecology in artists’ moving image.
Fergus Carmichael, Olivia Priya Foster, Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, Helen McCrorie, Kadeem Oak & Jonn Gale, and Hanna Tuulikki discuss their work in relation to the themes of the exhibition.
The discussion was chaired by Ruth
James Hutton: Ilana Halperin, Karine Polwart and more in conversation
Artists Ilana Halperin and Louise Bennetts, writer and performer Karine Polwart, and soil scientist Colin Campbell (Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute) discuss Hutton’s legacy in the context of contemporary creative practice. The conversation is chaired by Susanna Beaumont, curator of Earth Matters.
This event was programmed as part of Earth Day to celebrate two concurrent exhibitions
Ilana Halperin
Artist Ilana Halperin in conversation with Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley.
Ilana Halperin (b.1973, New York; lives and works in Glasgow) thinks deeply about our relationship to place and to the rocks that form the foundations of the Earth on which we live. What interests Halperin is the ability rocks have to tell stories about life – life that has left its mark, however minutely, in the matte
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
A conversation between Neal Ambrose-Smith and Dr. Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani about the artist, activist, educator and curator Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Fruitmarket’s new exhibition Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Wilding
Born January 15, 1940 Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was an enrolled Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, Montana.
Smith created complex abstract paintings and prints
Holly Davey
A conversation between Holly Davey and Ruth Bretherick, Fruitmarket’s Research and Public Engagement Curator, discussing Davey’s 2024 exhibition The Unforgetting.
Holly Davey is a British artist who works with photography, collage, sculpture, text and performance. Since 2019 she has been making a body of work under the title A Script for an Archive, in which she focuses on ‘what is happening at th
Mike Nelson
Mike Nelson in conversation with Fruitmarket Director Fiona Bradley about his exhibition Humpty Dumpty, a transient history of Mardin earthworks, low rise.
The show uses Fruitmarket’s Warehouse as the machine room, or driving force, for a major new installation that extends across all three spaces of the gallery. Built around two sets of photographs taken in London and a city in Eastern Turkey be
Emma Hart and Ali Smith
A conversation between artist Emma artist and novelist Ali Smith from 2018, including a reading by Ali Smith of a short story inspired by visits to Emma Hart's studio.
Emma Hart is a British artist who makes sculpture, photography, film and installation. Her work is often badly-behaved and messy, challenging assumptions and stereotypes in her quest to make art to which everyone can relate.
Her fi
Andrew O'Hagan on Lee Lozano and Muriel Spark
Andrew O’Hagan and Fruitmarket Director Fiona Bradley discuss the links between Lee Lozano and Dame Muriel Spark.
Their conversation, titled ‘Self-Sabotage’, explored the parallels between the self destructive tendencies of one of the protagonists of Spark’s 1970 novella The Driver’s Seat and Lozano’s rejection of the art world in the early 1970s, which threw her into semi-obscurity.
Lee Lozano
EAF Assembly: Women and the built environment
A panel conversation between Voices of Experience (Suzanne Ewing, Jude Barber and Nicola McLachlan) and architect Kirsty Maguire.
Voices of Experience is a collaborative project that recognises and supports the achievements of women working in architecture.
This conversation was recorded as part of Assembling, a day of events focused on women and the built environment, hosted in August 2023 by Fru
On Mike Nelson: David Grinly and David Moore in conversation
On Mike Nelson: David Grinly and David Moore in conversation
David Grinly (Stills) and David Moore (Edinburgh College of Art) discuss Mike Nelson’s new work for Fruitmarket: a transient history of Mardin earthworks and low rise, and think about its intersections with both sculpture and photography.
The conversation explores the sophisticated lie of Mike’s practice, and the way in which his spac
Briony Fer on Martin Creed
A 2010 lecture by curator and art historian Briony Fer on ‘oneness’ and ‘noneness’ in the work of Martin Creed.
Martin Creed is one of Britain’s most highly-regarded and popular artists. His work captures the public imagination, while also attracting critical acclaim for its generous, accessible approach. In 2001 he won the Turner Prize with Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, and in 2008 r
Stan Douglas
A conversation between Canadian artist Stan Douglas and Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley.
Stan Douglas is known for films, photographs and installations which use new and outdated technologies, the tropes of cinema, TV and photography, the conventions of various Hollywood genres, and classic literary texts to examine the intersection of history and memory in evocative, mesmerising artworks.
In 2
Gabriel Orozco
A panel discussion from 2013, between artist Gabriel Orozco, curator Briony Fer and art historian Benjamin Buchloh, chaired by Fruitmarket’s director Fiona Bradley.
Gabriel Orozco is a Mexican artist who lives and works mainly in Tokyo and Mexico City. His work blurs the boundaries of art with everyday realities and often balances complex geometry with organic materials and elements of chance.
I
Karine Polwart: introducing Fruitmarket's Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow
A mix of speech, music and song from Karine Polwart, introducing the plans for her 2025/26 writing residency with Fruitmarket.
Karine Polwart is a writer, musician, and storyteller whose work evokes a richness of place, hidden histories, scientific enquiry and folklore.
She has been selected as the recipient of the 2025/25 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship, for which Fruitmarket is the host organisation
Future Bourgeois: Phyllida Barlow, Elisabeth Lebovici, and Mignon Nixon in conversation
A panel discussion on Louis Bourgeois featuring British sculptor Phyllida Barlow, and art historians Elisabeth Lebovici and Mignon Nixon, chaired by Fruitmarket Director Fiona Bradley.
Louise Bourgeois is one of the greatest and most influential artists of our time. In a career spanning seven decades, from the 1940s until her death in 2010, she produced some of contemporary art’s most enduring i
Tacita Dean in conversation
A conversation between British-European artist Tacita Dean and Fruitmarket Director Fiona Bradley, recorded in 2018 to accompany Dean’s exhibition Woman with a Red Hat.
Best known for her use of film, and her advocacy for its preservation as an artistic medium, Tacita has a wide-ranging practice that includes drawings, photographs, installations and collections of found objects and images.
She w
Words and Things: celebrating fifty years of writing on art
2024 was Fruitmarket’s fiftieth birthday. As part of our celebrations we published Words and Things, a selection of just some of the writing on art published by Fruitmarket over the decades, edited by Ruth Bretherick, the gallery’s Research and Public Engagement Curator.
To launch the book, Ruth and Fruitmarket head of publishing Elizabeth McLean were joined in conversation with Words and Things c
Mike Nelson & Simon Patterson: Print the Legend
Extracts of a conversation between artists Mike Nelson and Simon Patterson and art historian, lecturer and writer Patricia Bickers, from the opening of Print the Legend: The Myth of the West, at Fruitmarket in 2008.
British artist Mike Nelson is known for immersive, absorbing installations assembled from the detritus of everyday lives. Often referencing works of literature or countercultural or
Sara Glojnarić in conversation with Kate Molleson
A conversation recorded in 2023 between composer Sara Glojnarić and journalist and author Kate Molleson, recorded in front of a live audience at Fruitmarket’s first Deep Time festival of new music ahead of the world premiere of Sara’s piece seconds, minutes, hours, eons, - commisioned by Fruitmarket and the ensemble p.e.r.s.o.n.a.l.c.l.u.t.t.e.r.
Germany-based Croatian composer Sara Glojnarić is t
William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland
Artists William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland in conversation with curator Tamar Garb.
The conversation was recorded at the opening of the 2016 Fruitmarket exhibition William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland: Conversations in letters and lines. Curated by Garb, this exhibition brought together the work of the two prominent South African artists, mapping their artistic friendship through shared ar
Linda Goode Bryant on Senga Nengudi
Curator and activist Linda Goode Bryant and Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley discuss the art of Senga Nengudi.
This conversation was recorded in 2019, when Fruitmarket showed the first solo institutional exhibition of Nengudi’s work outside the United States.
Born in Chicago in 1943, Senga Nengudi has been a trailblazer in sculpture for fifty years. A vital figure in the avant-garde scenes of
Phyllida Barlow: Why Make?
Phyllida Barlow in conversation with fellow artists with Kate Davis, Keith Wilson, Eric Bainbridge and Jon Wood. They discuss the question why make art?
This conversation accompanied the 2015 Fruitmarket exhibition Phyllida Barlow: Set, a major exhibition of new work made specially for the gallery. Further details about Set, including images and video, can be found at the Fruitmarket online archiv
On Sisters!: Pragna Patel & Meena Patel of Southall Black Sisters
Sisters in Solidarity: The Legacy of Southall Black Sisters
University of Edinburgh students in conversation with Pragna Patel and Meena Patel
This episode is one of three in a series accompanying the exhibition of Sisters!, a film by Petra Bauer, at the Fruitmarket: a collaborative film, documenting a day in the life of the Southall Black Sisters, a feminist organisation supporting Black
On 'Sisters!': Kirsten Lloyd & Rochelle Rowe
University of Edinburgh students in conversation with Dr. Kirsten Lloyd and Dr. Rochelle Rowe
This episode is one of three in a series accompanying the exhibition of Sisters!, a film by Petra Bauer at Fruitmarket. Sisters! is a collaborative film, documenting a day in the life of the Southall Black Sisters, a feminist organisation supporting Black and minoritised women in London facing domesti
On 'Sisters!': Petra Bauer & Frances Stacey
A conversation between Swedish artist Petra Bauer and curator Frances Stacey, recorded in February 2025 during the Preview event of the Fruitmarket exhibition of the film Sisters!, on loan from the University of Edinburgh Art Collection.
This episode is one of three in a series accompanying the exhibition of Sisters!
This was the first major exhibition in Scotland of Sisters! by Petra Bauer, w
Karla Black on Barry Le Va
Artist Karla Black in conversation with Fruitmarket Director, Fiona Bradley, discussing how Barry Le Va’s work inspires and informs her approach to materials and continues to have relevance for artists working today. This conversation, recorded in January 2025, accompanied the Fruitmarket show Barry Le Va: In a State of Flux, the first-ever major exhibition in the UK of the work of ground-breaking
Leonor Antunes
Portuguese, Berlin-based artist Leonor Antunes in conversation with Professor Briony Fer and Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley, recorded in October 2023 to accompany Antunes’ Fruitmarket exhibition the apparent length of a floor area.
Leonor Antunes works with traditions of modernist art, architecture and design through sculpture made and displayed with the specifics of a given place in mind.
The
Briony Fer on Eva Hesse
Professor Briony Fer’s keynote lecture on German-born American artist Eva Hesse, accompanying the 2009 Fruitmarket exhibition Eva Hesse: Studiowork, curated by Fer and Barry Rosen, Director of The Estate of Eva Hesse.
Throughout her career, Eva Hesse produced a large number of small, experimental works alongside her large-scale sculpture. These objects, the so-called test pieces, were made in a
Ibrahim Mahama
A conversation from October 2024 between Fruitmarket Director Fiona Bradley and Ibrahim Mahama, a Ghanaian artist critically acclaimed for his evocative large-scale, site-specific installations that speak to the cultural and social effects of post-colonialism and global migration.
Mahama’s 2024 Fruitmarket exhibition, Songs about Roses, was his first solo exhibition in Scotland. He worked with mat
Poor Things
Poor Things was an exhibition of sculptures made by 22 artists, working across the UK, shown at Fruitmarket in spring 2023. It was born out of conversations about art and social class that Emma Hart and Dean Kenning had together, both as friends and as artists.
Emma and Dean’s hope for Poor Things was that it might reveal the multiplicity of experiences of artists whose work speaks to working and
Howardena Pindell
A November 2021 conversation between Howardena Pindell and Fruitmarket Director, Fiona Bradley, about the selection of works in Howardena Pindell: A New Language at Fruitmarket.
This was Howardena Pindell’s first solo exhibition in a public organisation in the UK.
The exhibition tracked the development of Pindell’s artistic language from the 1970s to now, and examined her work as exemplary in arti
Karla Black
Karla Black in conversation with Fiona Bradley, Director of Fruitmarket, from September 2021. This event accompanied Karla’s 2021 exhibition, sculptures (2001–2021) details for a retrospective.
Scottish artist Karla Black makes sculptures that begin with a desire to do something. To experiment with certain materials, certain colours. In turn, the sculptures she makes do something: they hang, heap,
Daniel Silver & Phyllida Barlow
Programmed alongside Daniel Silver: Looking at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (11 June – 25 Sep 2022), this conversation explores space, sculpture and the audience encounter.
Silver was taught by Barlow at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and this conversation emerged from their professional and artistic relationship. As Fruitmarket Director, Fiona Bradley says, ‘Daniel mentioned having bumped in
