Above Scotland Exhibition
23 October 2012
A new exhibition at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, created by RCAHMS and Architecture and Design Scotland, is giving visitors a unique bird’s-eye view of Scotland through stunning aerial photography.
Titled Above Scotland, the exhibition is showing how, from our islands to our cities, no part of the landscape has been left untouched and unaltered by its people. Through large-scale images from the National Collection of Aerial Photography, visitors can explore the fascinating histories of how Scotland’s places came to be.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the exhibition Jim MacDonald, Chief Executive of Architecture and Design Scotland, said “These fantastic photographs give the visitors to the exhibition an understanding of how our country has developed its settlements in response to the landscape and also how people have shaped the landscape to suit changes in the likes of farming and industry. Seeing our places from above invites us to ask questions about how we use places now and how our plans and developments today respond to or shape the landscapes around us.”
James Crawford, author of Scotland’s Landscapes, a new book published this month by RCAHMS, said: "Over the past 10,000 years, every inch of Scotland has been shaped, changed and moulded by its people. No part of the land is without its human story. Sometimes, in just one modern photograph, you can peel back the layers of history to show how hundreds of generations of our ancestors have shaped the landscape we look at today."
As part of Above Scotland, Architecture and Design Scotland also visited three of the places featured in the exhibition, and invited school children to create a response to their place and to capture the results with their own aerial photography. Films of the process and the results are part of the exhibition.
The Above Scotland exhibition opens to the public on 26 October 2012 and runs until 3 February 2013 in Gallery 2, The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1 3NU. The exhibition is suitable for the whole family, admission is free, and opening hours are Monday – Friday, 10:30am – 5pm, and Saturday – Sunday, 12 - 5pm.
