Waste to Monument: John Latham’s Niddrie Woman

John Latham’s Artist Placement Group residency at the Scottish Office’s Development Agency in 1975–6 led to a series of proposals for some of the nineteen huge derelict heaps of red shale waste known as ‘bings’, found in West and Midlothian near Edinburgh. Craig Richardson evaluates the art historical and ecological significance of four of these bings near the small towns of Winchburgh and Broxburn, which Latham reconceived as ‘process sculptures’ and collectively titled Niddrie Woman.