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Special Interest

Every year at EAF we provide a 'Special Interest' platform for artists and designers who have something a little bit special to offer. The work that these people bring is not always for sale, but we believe that they warrant the publicity that the fair can bring them, and we love what they can bring to the fair. This year we are introducing two exciting individuals for visitors to engage with.

Mark Stoddart

International Designer

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For over 30 years Mark has operated from his workshop in his Scottish homeland. Drawing his inspiration from a landscape that also inspired Scotland's most famous literary son, Rabbie Burns, who was born in Ayrshire in 1759.

Mark has also been inspired during his travels around the world especially his visits to Africa where he has viewed animals in the wild and on nature reserves, forming the basis for many of his best-selling pieces. Over the years, Mark's unique bronze sculptures have become highly collectable items sought after by clients the world over. Appearing on more than one occasion in publications such as 25 Beautiful Homes they add a real feature to their owner's homes and create quite the talking point. Foremost among his pieces is a range of beautiful and functional glass-topped coffee and dining tables with bronze-bases, some sculptured into wild animal forms, including the Hippopotamus, Tiger, Baby Elephant and Rhinoceros. Others take their inspiration from technology, among them the Apollo Lunar Landing Module table, one of which now takes pride of place in the home of former US astronaut Buzz Aldrin. 

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Mark is also involved with lots of charity work, specifically raising funds for neurodiverse causes. The hippo table above is the top prize of a raffle he is currently running to raise money for a neurodiverse school in Kenya that Mark has been funding. The table will be on show at this year's Edinburgh Art Fair and with the raffle ending on 25th September, visitors will have the opportunity to enter the raffle to win this beautifully crafted piece before it closes.

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Edward Cawood

Visual Artist

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Edward Cawood is an emerging visual artist based in Edinburgh, whose lens- and text-based practice embodies a site-catalysed, research-led approach, delving into Scotland's industrial decline and the nuanced value of objects and their function(s). Informed by queer, archaeological, and readymade methodologies, his practice merges historical inquiry with contemporary discourse, utilising labour-intensive processes to evoke physical and conceptual depth, reflecting on craftsmanship amid societal shifts. Through an interdisciplinary lens, Edward invites viewers to navigate complex intersections of heritage, identity, and transformation, prompting reflection on our relationship with industrial legacies and the evolving meanings embedded within objects and landscapes. 

 

Edward's 2024 work on display at Edinburgh Art Fair, titled Prestongrange: Dreaming as a Brick (on Morrison's Haven), is part of a wider inquiry into the former Prestongrange Brick and Tile Works. Prestongrange, East Lothian, Scotland, was once the site of huge industrial activity, home to one of Scotland's oldest collieries (with coal first extracted at the site during the 12th century by Cistercian monks from the nearby Newbattle Abbey), a large brick and tile works, salt extraction, a glass works and a bustling merchant's port. Manufacture boomed at Prestongrange from the onset of the Industrial Revolution and continued, accelerating throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The port, Morrison's Haven, was filled in during the first half of the 20th century, followed by the colliery's closure, mandated by the National Coal Board in 1962. These closures forced Prestongrange Brick and Tile Works to cease operation in 1975. Comprising of 12 plaster bricks, which are all casts of an original Prestongrange brick, Edward's work pays homage to this industrial powerhouse. The bricks feature a haiku in place of the Prestongrange brick stamp, written by the artist and his mother, imagining what a brick might dream of, as it lays discarded and forgotten on the beach.

 

A short zine written by the artist is available alongside Edward's bricks, featuring original photographs of Prestongrange as it stands today. 

 

Edward graduated from Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh, in 2024 with a BA(Hons) in Photography.​​

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