• Search Icon
  • Toggle Menu
  • Close Menu

The Trick Brain (2012-13)

Ed Atkins

single channel HD projection with 5.1 surround sound

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Details

Classification:

Moving Image

Materials:

Video, CD Rom

Dimensions:

16 :15 minutes

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society with support from Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2013

Ownership history:

Purchased from the Cabinet Gallery by the Contemporary Art Society, with support from Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 2013; presented to Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (National Galleries Scotland), 2013

Ed Atkins's practice explores digital media’s apparent immateriality in relation to its possibilities for precise representations of the physical and corporeal world through high definition video, sound, writing and drawing. He graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2009 and has since received the Jerwood Projects / Film and Video Umbrella Award (2012) and been nominated for the Jarman Award (2013).

Atkins's film The Trick Brain (2013) features archival footage from the DVD that accompanied the infamous auction for the André Breton estate sale in 2003 from which Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh bought a number of items. The film meditates on the immediate effects of the sale and distribution of Breton’s collection and its wider implications for historical artefacts.

The gallery is home to Scotland’s outstanding national collection of modern and contemporary art. Its two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two, house work from the beginning of the 20th century including superb holdings of expressionist and modern British and Scottish art, an outstanding collection of international post-war work and the most important and extensive collection of modern Scottish Art. The gallery’s Surrealist collection is one of the largest anywhere in the world. It also holds a substantial number of prints, archival material, periodicals, books, letters and other important publications in the gallery’s dedicated Keiller Library.

All rights reserved. Any further use will need to be cleared with the rights holder. Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited. The collection that owns this artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

For further information, please consult our section of our copyright policy.

You Might Also Like

Globe (1986)

Globe (1986)

Donated by Eric and Jean Cass through the Contemporary Art Society, 2012

Dolly (1983)

Dolly (1983)

Donated by Eric and Jean Cass through the Contemporary Art Society, 2012