My 'The indirect exchange of uncertain value"

by Geraldine Heaney, 29 Aug 2011

This will be my final post on the blog as the project came to a close yesterday. I would have liked to have more regularly given updates but there was so much else to organise and keep up with that this blog often had to sit on the back burner.

So much as happened in the last month that I don’t really even know where to start. Picking up Vito Acconci from the airport? Spending an afternoon drenched in sunshine at Little Sparta? Handing out Whisky at the back leg of a giant cat? Marching a team of blue stickered, umbrella wielding art fans through the bucketing rain only to recite the words “alas the Callover Hall of Fettes College Edinburgh is not open to the public, so I shall describe the work for you…”

The last month has seen a broad array of characters pass through the Carrington Road gates of Fettes College Edinburgh.

“Welcome to The indirect exchange of uncertain value, your visit should last approximately 45 minutes and will include a short tour of the grounds of Fettes and an opportunity to experience the artworks currently sited here.”

And so began, just over 3 weeks ago, the first tour of The indirect exchange of uncertain value. We ran tours every hour on the hour from 11am till 5pm every day from the 7th of August to the 28th.
I had the pleasure of working of an incredible team of Tour guides who faced even the rainiest days with an enthusiasm that seemed to be fuelled by biscuits and a hunger for more facts. We spent our days in an elegantly constructed shed surrounded by bold coloured posters created as part of the project by The Artists involved and participants in our schools workshops at Broughton High School and Fettes College.

The response to the work was excellent a real range of people visited, local residents interested in just getting a wee bit closer to the School Building, long distance travellers who came through from Glasgow who are already interested in the work of the displaying artists or confused tourists who think Fettes is Hogwarts and were cajoled by a tour guide to take part in the whole tour.

I feel really proud to have been part of this project and can’t really take in the abundance of brilliant experiences I’ve had as part of it. The people I have met, the places I have visited and the discussions I will continue to have.

I’m not sure what else to say except from Thank You, Collective, for everything.

Geraldine