Study for North Bridge is a new moving image work by Rachel McBrinn and Jonathan Webb, a site-responsive film concerned with the restoration and preservation of the North Bridge in Edinburgh.

Unfolding across a series of documentary as well as speculative scenes, Study for North Bridge uses the story of the contemporary refurbishment project to playfully explore the artist’s role as public relations messenger. It follows in a tradition of artworks commissioned by the city to document and commemorate one of Edinburgh’s most historically significant landmarks, examining the artists’ role and responsibilities in documenting the built environment, and considering the machinery of access relating to these historical resources. Through the voice of a fictional Art Historian who appears to have encountered some of the footage many years later, the viewer is also asked to think about the legacy and reinterpretation of archival materials.

The title Study for North Bridge is an explicit reference to the practice of creating preparatory sketches or ‘studies’ as a way to explore specific artistic elements—such as colour, lighting, or composition—before producing a finished artwork. By foregrounding the ‘behind the scenes’ moments from the production process, and resisting the spectacle of the ‘completed’ bridge, the artists invite viewers to think of the bridge, and the city around it, as in a continual state of becoming.

The moving image work is accompanied by a series of artefacts and fragments that have fallen from or been extracted from the bridge, and works from the City of Edinburgh’s Fine Art Collection depicting the bridge over three centuries.

A North Bridge Refurbishment Arts Legacy Project commissioned by The City of Edinburgh Council.