Jupiter Artland is an award-winning contemporary sculpture garden located just outside Edinburgh. Set in over 100 acres of meadow, woodland and indoor gallery spaces, Jupiter Artland is home to over 30 permanent and unique site-specific sculptures from artists Phyllida Barlow, Christian Boltanski, Charles Jencks, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, as well as a seasonal programme of carefully curated exhibitions and events from a plethora of artists, both emerging and established.


Art Unlocked is an online talk series by Art UK in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies. This Curation is based on a talk by Nicky Wilson, Founder and Director of Jupiter Artland, on 18th May 2022. You can find a recording at: https://youtu.be/ngeTcVtDYpg

6 artworks
  • Nestled in the woodland, quarry brings together three sculptural objects made from concrete and steel: two trunk-like columns that rise from the landscape and a mountainous flight of ruined steps.


    quarry is Phyllida Barlow's first permanent outdoor artwork. Featuring Barlow's signature textural surfaces, quarry combines materials and structures that evoke natural growth, industrial materials, and elements of decay or ruination. As such, quarry is a perfect representation of Barlow's inimitable aesthetic.


    The two rising, trunk-like columns each culminate in their own 'sky frame', an industrial-like structure that looms over the canopy, mimicking the oak and beech trees that grow throughout Jupiter Artland’s estate.

    quarry 2018
    Phyllida Barlow (1944–2023)
    Cement & steel
    Jupiter Artland
    quarry
    © the artist's estate, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth. Image credit: Anna Kunst. Courtesy of Jupiter Artland

  • Rose Walk consists of two ten-metre-high pavilions, connected by a twenty five-metre long rose garden. The two pavilions are built in two different architectural styles; one is gothic and the other demonstrates a chinoiserie style.


    Rose Walk is one of Pablo Bronstein’s largest outdoor works. These imposing and elaborate follies simultaneously act as entrances to, and an ornamental framing of, the narrow promenade.

    Rose Walk 2017
    Pablo Bronstein (b.1977)
    Wood, steel, copper & roses
    H 706.5 x W 479.5 x D 2687 cm
    Jupiter Artland
    Rose Walk
    © courtesy the artist and Herald St, London. Image credit: Allan Pollok-Morris, Amelia Claudia. Courtesy of Jupiter Artland

  • upside mimi ᴉɯᴉɯ uʍop – or Mimi for short – takes the form of an abandoned high-street shop, sited within the woodland at Jupiter Artland.


    The artwork is a combination of architecture, sculpture and animation, all seen through the lens of Maclean’s signature aesthetic. Mimi represents Maclean’s first foray into outdoor art and combines architecture, sculpture and animation.


    Maclean took her inspiration from commercial spaces as sites of desire, combining this with the role forests play within fairy tales, being at once places of magic, of danger, of transformation – where the normal rules of daily life no longer apply.

    upside mimi ᴉɯᴉɯ uʍop 2021
    Rachel Maclean (b.1987)
    Jupiter Artland
    upside mimi ᴉɯᴉɯ uʍop
    © the artist. Image credit: Amelia Claudia. Courtesy of Jupiter Artland

  • Gateway is an artwork integrated within a fully functioning swimming pool and landscaped garden. The pool is nine-metres in diameter and is made up of vibrant, hand-painted, Portuguese tiles.


    Gateway draws inspiration from the ley lines that are said to intersect at the site of Jupiter Artland. These ley lines are believed by some to channel earthly energy, connecting sacred and spiritual sites across the world.


    Vasconcelos has incorporated patterns from her own astrological chart into the design of the artwork, which is made up of 11,366 hand-painted and glazed tiles, crafted using traditional methods at a 100-year-old factory in Vasconcelos' native Portugal.

    Gateway 2019
    Joana Vasconcelos (b.1971)
    Screen-printed tiles, bricks, yew trees, boxwood, beech, Portuguese laurel, steel gates & ceramic fountain
    Jupiter Artland
    Gateway
    © Joana Vasconcelos, SPA/ DACS 2024. Image credit: Allan Pollok-Morris, Owen Humphreys

  • Piss Flowers are a group of bronze sculptures – enamelled white to imitate plaster – that resemble flowers. The making of the sculptures however, required the strategic use of the other material invoked in their name.


    During a residency at the Banff Arts Centre, Canada in 1991, Chadwick and her partner David Notarius made daily visits to snowbound locations. There they would place a flower-shaped metal mould onto a mound of snow, taking turns to urinate into it. They then poured plaster into the shapes created. From these casts, bronze versions were made and mounted onto pedestals resembling bulbs. The downward path of the hot urine through snow is inverted to form a flower reaching upwards.

    Piss Flowers 2016
    Helen Chadwick (1953–1996)
    Enamelled bronze
    Jupiter Artland
    Piss Flowers
    © The Estate of the Artist; Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London. Image credit: Allan Pollok-Morris. Courtesy of Jupiter Artland

  • Tracey Emin’s participation in Jupiter Artland’s 2022 season begins with the unveiling of I Lay Here For You, a six metre bronze sited personally by the artist in an old-growth beech grove. Larger than life, powerful and at ease, the sculpture presents a radically different view of woman’s place in nature, as well as creating a dialogue with the new work presented by the artist across Jupiter’s indoor gallery spaces.


    Tracey Emin, CBE, RA is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin represented Great Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2011. She was awarded the honour of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the visual arts in 2012. Tracey Emin’s art is one of disclosure, using her life events as inspiration for works ranging from painting, drawing, video and installation, to photography, needlework and sculpture.

    I Lay Here For You 2018
    Tracey Emin (b.1963)
    Bronze
    W 600 cm
    Jupiter Artland
    I Lay Here For You
    © Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS 2024. Image credit: Allan Pollok Morris. Courtesy Jupiter Artland