Sum of its parts

Anew book that combines poetry and photography pays tribute to one of Edinburgh’s most singular sons, Eduardo Paolozzi. Co-edited by former Edinburgh Makar Christine De Luca and Carlo Pirozzi, Paolozzi at Large in Edinburgh (Luath Press, £25) matches reproductions of 12 of Paolozzi’s artworks in Edinburgh with 12 original poems written by De Luca. “Sum of its parts” is inspired by a sculpture, The Wealth of Nations, found outside RBS’S Drummond House headquarters.

‘The Wealth of Nations’, a bronze sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi, 1992/93

It is monumental, more than the sum of its parts: a man – head and hands – pulling on the levers of some great endeavour. He embodies concentration. Lying prone he mines rock, not ledgers; rejects

the spoil; implies that the wealth of nations accumulates from adding value to the earth’s material gifts through his skill, toil, knowledge, creativity, technology. From the other side

his head transforms into a piston pump: symbol of easy wealth, of emptied workplaces checked from a comfortable distance; of capital as king. Yet the man persists. He is beyond mere utility.

In this hard-edged world his feet are sensuous, soft and stoical. They seem to be going in the other direction. Perhaps, in his imagination, the man is walking back to another dispensation.

Perhaps he is dreaming of home, of family, of days without zero hours contracts; of life beyond relentless cranks and counterweights, the repetitive turn; beyond digits and ciphers. You can find copies of Paolozzi at Large in Edinburgh at the Scottish Poetry Library ,5 crichton’ sc lose, edinburgh, www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk.