Cast Contemporaries: artists respond to the completion of the Cast Collection Project at Edinburgh College of Art

Cast Contemporaries is an exhibition that explores contrasting responses to the fate of plaster cast collections in art schools. Many contemporary artists question the relevance of preserving reproductions of antique sculptures, anatomical figures and architectural details. However a growing number of young and emergent practitioners are rethinking the role of these historic educational resources. Edinburgh College of Art has one of the most important cast collections in the UK and, following a two year project in which this unique legacy has been conserved and researched, Cast Contemporaries considers the casts as catalysts for future visual arts experimentation. The exhibition, which reinterprets Edinburgh’s casts with contemporary artworks, is a collaboration between Chris Dorsett, an artist based at Northumbria University whose exhibitions combine contemporary fine art practices with museum display, and Margaret Stewart, curator of the Collection at the College. Dorsett was appointed Honorary Research Fellow at Edinburgh University to curate this exhibition for the 2012 Edinburgh Festival. The 29 contributing artists included: Christine Borland, Gareth Fisher, Kenny Hunter and Alexander Stoddart. A sixty page illustrated catalogue has been produced with 3 essays: 'Contemporaneity: having been there' by Chris Dorsett 'Athena in "The Boeotia of the North"' by Bill Hare 'The Cast Collection at Edinburgh College of Art' by Margaret Stewart More information is available on the project website: http://castcontemporaries.weebly.com/