ARTIST #05 Ruth Ewan

In April this year, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the Edinburgh Art Festival had to be cancelled. However, as Edinburgh and its vibrant visual art scene begin to emerge from lockdown we are delighted to present this new weekly showcase, produced alongside Edinburgh Art Festival, featuring work by artists with digital and/or physical exhibitions at the city’s galleries.

This month, Ruth Ewan is revisiting her Sympathetic

Magick project of 2018, where she invited magicians to consider how they might use their magic to change the world. Her short film, Worker’s Song Storydeck (devised with magician Billy Reid), is available to view on the Edinburgh Art Festival website, and a special poster series Magic Words (Ian, Margaret, Peggy) devised with magician Ian Saville, is being displayed in locations around Edinburgh, calling upon all of us to join together in a “mass action for the radical transformation of society”.

“The background image of these posters shows a detail of a toy diorama made by JC Clark around 1825 from the collection of Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood,” says Ewan.

“The overlaid text on this version of the artwork is an edited version of magician Ian Saville’s spell as featured in Sympathetic Magick in 2018. One version is handwritten by Ian, one by my mum and one by my 7 year old daughter.

“A long adopted symbol of hope and sexual liberation, who would’ve foretold rainbows would become so abundant in 2020? During ourlockdown ‘dailyexercise’, our kids would shout out as they spotted them around our community, each one a reassuring hand-crafted signal to pedestrian passers by.”

Ewan’s Magic Words posters can be found at poster sites across the city, including Meadowbank, the Royal Mile, Murrayfield Stadium, Potterow and Easter Road, and her short film is available to view via www.edinburghartfestival. com until 30 August.