Martin Creed Work No. 997, 2009 © Martin Creed. Image: Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Barbora Gerny

Two days, one night, 4 Fringe performances and 8 gallery shows later, I leave Edinburgh sated and satisfied. I’d tried to stay away having drunk a generous mug of the EIFF back in June, but no – the flesh may have been weak but the spirit wasn’t taking no for an answer. I like being alone to attend the Edinburgh Art Festival so that I can muse silently upon any and all stimuli to hurl themselves across my optic windscreen without having to express my opinion aloud; preferring the cognitive equivalent of grunts. Urgh. Me no like. Urgh. Orange. Like an… orange. Urgh.

The Pursuit of Fidelity (detail) 1997 / Alexander & Susan Maris

Martin Creed with Down Over Up at The Fruitmarket Gallery concerned himself with stacked items in order of progression and size, an approach no less polarising than his Turner prize winning ‘The Lights Going On And Off’, in which the bare bulbs in an empty gallery did just that. Instead it was his felt-tip paintings, panels of apparently solid shades that on inspection had been executed using contrasting pen strokes, that had me cooing and thinking of how I used to shake out the fibrous, Tampon-like interiors of my own pencil case to cheat for ultra fast-colouring.

Momenta 1994 - 2001 / Alexander & Susan Maris

Over at Stills Gallery on Cockburn Street, a retrospective of Alexander and Susan Maris’ photography, The Pursuit of Fidelity, displayed palm-sized pools of black and white intensity that appeared to defy gravity by not sliding in brackish streaks down the blank, white walls. Preoccupied with landscape, stillness, myth and the resonance of personal and geographic histories, these sniper-sight works possessed a telescopic focus, sometimes sharp, others clouded in a gelatin fog, landscapes condensed and reduced to precise cameo-like profiles of earth and sky.

blipfoto were in residence at Inspace with Life Turns, nurturing a spiked forest of zoetropes to reflect the principle call to arms: a collaborative, Alt-w funded project from the Bafta Award-winning online photography platform, aided by an iPhone app that allowed contributors from across the world to submit their own strolling bodies – view the finished project above. It was this approach in clarity and purpose that impressed me most acutely whilst dodging the pipers and pounding the pavement this year, found also at the Ingleby Gallery and Talbot Rice: both brave enough to pass over kaleidoscopic variety and theatrical installations for solo artists working in paint.

En Passant 5 / Iran do Espírito Santo 2010 (housepaint on wall)

Ingleby Gallery was a breath of fresh air once I’d managed to rediscover the secret route through the Waverley Railway station thanks to an Escher-like conundrum in which the building can be spotted from multiple points at North Bridge but with no obvious means of reaching the place. (Tip: head to the rear platforms behind the M&S, stick to the left, look for a footbridge). Well worth the attempt, they always have free postcards of new exhibitions on gorgeous, thick card-stock – a boon for cash-strapped art tarts. Grab a couple, pop them on the mantelpiece, folk will think you a connoisseur and pay an extra quid for a posh bottle of wine when calling round.

En Passant 5 / Iran do Espírito Santo 2010 (housepaint on wall)

As for the show itself, Iran Do Espírito Santo’s large scale tone painting takes up the entire wall surface of the main gallery on the second floor. It’s quite something. An exercise in minimalism, shades of white, grey and black paint have been mixed to form a blended transition in mathematically precise vertical stripes. Bathed in the dishwater-pale Edinburgh light leaking through the windows, the effect is of a corrugated surface; the fine line between tones creating the illusion of peak and trough. The limited palette builds from white through to tissue, dove, concrete, tippling into blue; Air Force, Prussian, purple: aubergine, plum, to blackberry, inkwell, a starless night.

Water Glass 2 / Iran do Espírito Santo 2008 (crystal)

The sensation of cleansing and de-cluttering, of combining basic ingredients to create an omelette of aesthetic purity, continues with a small series of sculptural works by the same artist. Of these Water Glass 2 is utterly mesmeric. Worked crystal, it appears to be just that, a glass of water, impeccably tooled to give the appearance of liquid held by cooled molten sand and silica. There are no air bubbles, viewing from different angles causes the glass to appear first empty, then full, then half-drained. It is an idea reduced, uncomplicated and undeniably beautiful.

Julie Roberts

My other heart-want lurch of the EAF programme was Julie Robert’s exhibition Child at Talbot Rice. Her carefully orchestrated painting style, here realised in a new series of children’s portraits both posed and at play, squeezes colour in thick streaks like rainbow toothpaste. Glances of light, dappled shadow and nuance of texture are abstracted in the form of detailed patterns and a paint-by-numbers approach. Despite the jigsaw effect of a shattered bus-stop, the subjects retain their humanity… albeit sutured together, whole but sliced apart like a butcher shop poster detailing the cuts of a cow.

Julie Roberts

Leafing through the catalogues of past series on display, this comparison adopts greater relevance as Robert’s earlier work includes the ripped and torn bodies of Jack the Ripper’s victims, glistening with exposed, bulbous organs and shredded flesh, a vintage picture-book peek of a dark and adult play. That her distinct signature can step between innocence and experience yet offer a fresh perspective upon changing obsessions, from medical apparatus to porcelain pastoral ornaments, suggests that her technique has become a powerful voice, with timbre, pitch and resonance. Only the story changes.

Hokulani MamaSwamp Beale / AAE Los Angeles

Abandon Normal Devices Festival and Junk Shop welcomes San Francisco’s infamous horror hostess Peaches Christ/director Joshua Grannell to Manchester for the International Premiere of the (bloody) marvellous horror comedy, All About Evil! This immersive, 4-D floorshow and screening asks that audiences consider attending in their very finest Gore Couture. Taking inspiration from vintage Hollywood B-movies, classic monsters and ray-gun toting alien invaders, fans across the globe have responded by fusing Lady Gaga with Morticia Addams, Leigh Bowery with Beetlejuice.

Damiana Garcia, Christeene Vale / AAE Los Angeles

To aid in your own transformation, Junk are offering exclusive courses in Gore Couture. You will concoct ghoulishly glamorous attire using hellish embellishments, sickly, saturated colours and tremble-inducing textures to create costumes which both captivate and repel, selecting an item from your wardrobe to undergo a horrible transformation. It could be straight out of a vintage movie theatre: you might bring to life an oversized piece of costume jewellery, an exuberant headpiece and opera-length glove set or even a classic faux-fur stole to be worn with your most deadly Little Black Dress.

Ric Ray, Holy McGrail / AAE San Francisco photo by Marcy Cravat

Junk Shop are trailblazers in sustainable fashion. Their city centre branch (in addition to their first boutique on Burton Road in West Didsbury) has been entirely furnished using recycled or reclaimed materials: suspended spindle shelving, a remoulded fairy liquid bottle counter and walk in wardrobe changing rooms are just a few of the features. This approach is in keeping with a business manifesto that pursues green ethics, each store showcasing three unique labels by their own in-house design team (Junk Boutique, Jumble and Label of Love).

Junk Shop

To get your pulse racing and the brain ticking, you may wish to follow one of the staff suggested themes:

Hammer Glamour: think gore-soaked frocks and frills; slashed and trashed lace; shredded, knotted and bound translucent nightgowns; florid ruffles and coagulated fluids.

Manchester Morgue: think dissection; surgical sutures and splices; bulbous and burst organs transplanted and rearranged; convulsing creases and sunken, watery eyes.

The Phantom of the Opera: think matted and splattered faux-fur; stiffened silk; opera glasses; luxurious quilted fabrics; fringing; tantalising tassels and velvet which produces a shudder in the spine.

Junk Shop

Junk Shop

Junk Shop

Junk Shop

This course includes up-cycled materials, free entry to the opening night at Cornerhouse (normal ticket price £15), first option on further tickets plus an exclusive photo session provided by our friends and collaborators, Grimm Up North. It would be helpful if you were to bring along some imagery to guide your co-creators in devising an individual look just for you.

£120.00 / places limited. Two days, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September, 12 - 6pm (12 hours). Call Junk to book on 0161 238 8517.

LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE

Peaches Christ / image: Jose Guzman Colon

What better date than Friday 13th to reveal the details (with some surprises still withheld) of the International Premiere of All About Evil; the directorial feature debut of cult horror hostess, Gore Couture icon and director Peaches Christ / Joshua Grannell. Appearing at Cornerhouse as part of Abandon Normal Devices (1 - 7 October), tickets will very soon be on sale - and are set to disappear just as quickly! I'm looking for contributors, volunteers and flat-out fabulous audience members, so read all about it, see some advance snapshots, roll the VT and get in touch!

image: Linda Matthew

I love this picture, it only recently arrived amongst the final batch from our photographer at The Call of Cthulhu event at the EIFF. No reason to post, other than it being MY website and you SEE what I decide. Tomorrow, a picture of a kitten in a blender.

image: Rachel McHaffie

Review and picture gallery now up from Scratch 'n Sniff Cinema presents My Beautiful Laundrette. An added bonus was the left-over tequilla, Blue Curacao and vodka. Hic! Limited edition screenprints by poster artist Simon Misra, signed, with an extra signature now on the reverse from actor Gordon Warnecke (who plays Omar in the film) are still available at only £10 plus £2.50 p+p.  I'll also throw in a scratch card or two for you to recreate the experience at home!

I was fortunate to head out to San Francisco earlier this year, home to the show and the cast, where Peaches is revered as a cult (movie) leader. Posters on the Muni system confirmed this! As producer of the event there are already some exciting collaborations lined up, with the first batch of tickets on sale soon.

Save the date - Saturday 2nd October. And if you think you'd like to get involved, then get in touch to become one of The Children of the Popcorn!

On Saturday 17th July outbreaks of hazardous behaviour will once again be unleashed upon Manchester City Centre and live guerilla art returned to the streets for the third hit-and-run. Cheeky, thought-provoking and sometimes raunchy sprees of eccentricity, look for a flash of yellow and black which should just be enough to give the game away... appearing alongside my own Scratch 'n Sniff pop-up cinema will be Eggs Collective (The March of 100 Dorothys), Alex Bradley (All the demos I've ever been on), Astrid Breel (The Dating Game), Jordan McKenzie (Monsieur Finds Himself Up Queer Street), The Muffia (Ask the question), Clare Charnley (Splat), Hannah Wiles (Beeline), Larkin' About (Various) and many more. See you there. Now scatter! Full programme.

Simon Misra screenprint: limited edition of 50

A new limited edition screenprint from Simon Misra for my forthcoming event Scratch 'n Sniff Cinema presents My Beautiful Laundrette is now available at the frankly astonishing price of just £10. That's right! Around the same as three-and-a-bit beers! And when they're gone, they're gone. For those attending on the evening of Friday 16th July, actor Gordon Warnecke will be attending in person to sign copies, but if anyone wants to reserve one in advance just get in contact via the tab at the top of this page. Have you got your free ticket yet? Friday is almost fully booked, with Saturday heading the same way once the press coverage kicks in. Hope to see you there.