EDINBURGH’S SELECT AVOCADOS

UNVEILING A ONCE-COVERT ART SHOW IN THE HEART OF EDINBURGH’S OLD TOWN

 
 

The Select Avocados Art Ensemble of Edinburgh were a little known group of international artists who met in Edinburgh during early 2007 and subsequently produced a subtle environmental art show in Advocate’s Close - crucially, without advertising their intervention as an art show. Without funding. Zero publicity. I had to do something about it (with their blessing) which I have, so welcome visitors to www.edinburghcloseup.org’s presentation of The Select Avocados.

Why the name?
Select Avocados is simply an anagram of Advocates Close where the project took place. Also relevant is that the English word for avocados is actually derived from advocate. Also consider that an avocado is still a recent immigrant to this country - only one which the middle classes embrace. So most of the artists in my show are not able to secure funding, have terrible marketing skills and don’t know how to talk the talk. They just do it.

The central idea came from Marshelline Huber whose piece of work
Tongue and Groove (chipboard right) - is a painstaking replication of emergency window boarding with typographic elements. Her piece simply commemorates when these plucky rebels got together. We will show you more about her work on her page but the date and letter “E” is important.

This site and the live event in July 2008 aim to replicate that and any of the performances associated to the Edinburgh Art Fair material on show here. Huber is a graphic designer and most of her work is not dissimilar with the graffiti tagging in the rest of the close –  but she gets away with it, even more than
banksy - as her name becomes like a tag disguised here by officialdom. She works with the system. She is a shinking violet to Banksy’s prostitution for the bees.

Annoyingly, as a result,
Select Avocados artworks are nortoriously hard to spot without a guide, hence edinburghcloseup.org have commissioned me to produce such a guide. THERE WILL BE A DOWNLOADBALE PODCAST AVAILABLE ON THIS SITE IN AUGUST 2008 AFTER THE LIVE EVENT.

I knew vaguely what they were up to. But the artists are no longer in Edinburgh now. But I have managed to gather in, a percentage of the works to re-curate Select Avocados. There were more works, but it’s taken me ages to find even a dozen which we will see in a moment. The reason I draw these works to your attenion is I just felt, I had to intervene in July 2008 because I thought it was a shame that we didn’t at least acknowledge the legacy of what has gone on before as we are gathered here for The Edinburgh Art Festival 2008.

Even today, folk wander through here without realising they are part of an exhibition which still lives and breathes – so we have two exhibitions in July 2008 if you like, and I have been selected to represent the underdog which requires this mini tour to actually see it. This tour is happening both in situ and online here.

The Select Avocados aim was to give voice to the voiceless and to celebrate minutiae. Tiny things - blink and you’ll miss it things. The unsung hero, the underdog, the runt of the close. Hence a lot of the works being about small things. Welcome. Enjoy the work.

Chris Dooks,
www.dooks.org

 

The Select Avocados Art Ensemble of Edinburgh
Curator: Chris Dooks

UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF ADVOCATES CLOSE, AN HISTORIC LOCATION IN EDINBURGH’S OLD TOWN. ON THIS SITE, CURATOR CHRIS DOOKS WILL EXPLAIN HOW TO “READ” THE CLOSE BASED ON THE WORK OF FIVE INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS WHO FORMED A GROUP AND WHO WISHED TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS. UNTIL NOW.