CRITIC’S CHOICE

Buckets and spades are as synonymous with the seaside as wind breaks and woolly jumpers. But the buckets which will appear on Portobello Beach in Edinburgh tomorrow, and then around Scotland and the rest of the UK over the next four months, are no ordinary buckets, but scale models of five of the world’s mountains – Mts Kilimanjaro, Shasta, Fuji, Stromboli and Uluru - the buckets themselves fashioned from fully compostable corn starch.

Artist Katie Paterson, who works with experts in the earth sciences and other fields to create wonderfully evocative and thoughtful works has created this touring interactive artwork in line with her ongoing interests – space, time, the world’s geology, and our place within that massive and perpetual frame.

Beach-goers will be invited to sculpt mountains over the sands, watching as the tide sweeps them away – the idea behind this ephemeral work is an awareness of coastal erosion, and of larger matters of the Earth’s “tilted axis”

and the gravitational pull of the moon. The idea of stepping back, slowing down, watching this newly created miniature world below us, as if gods with creation and extinction in our hands. Each time the beach artwork is repeated, a piece of writing will be created by poets, scientists, writers on art, geologists and others, one for each location, and read out at the beginning of the event. Contact the arts venues in each location (see website) for details on how to take part.

Katie Paterson: First There is a Mountain, Portobello Beach (Sun 16 Jun, 11am–1pm), then touring to beaches in Aberdeen, Orkney, Stornoway, North Uist, Skye, Mull, Northumberland and venues south until Oct 27. For event details see www.firstthereisamoutain.com and www.fruitmarket.co.uk for 16 Jun event. 0131 225 2383. Katie Paterson in conversation at Bellfield Community Hall, Portobello, Edinburgh, 5pm–6pm, Free, today.