Opening tomorrow, Saturday, March 12: Amie Siegel, Bloodlines (2022)

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
(Modern One)75 Belford Rd, Edinburgh EH4 3DR

Exhibition dates: 12 March - 4 September 2022

The National Galleries of Scotland will will premiere a new large-scale artwork by Amie Siegel. Bloodlines (2022), one of Siegel’s most expansive works to date, considers complex networks of art, labour, pedigree and cultural identification. The work is the first of Siegel’sSiegel’s first to enter Scotland’s national collection and will debut at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art from 12 March – 4 September 2022.

Amie Siegel has long been interested in the lives of artworks and objects—how they gain cultural meaning and value. Filmed in numerous private estates throughout England and Scotland, as well as in public institutions, Bloodlines follows the movement of paintings by the English artist George Stubbs (1724-1806) from aristocratic homes and private country houses to their exhibition in a public art gallery, and subsequent return. First depicted within the ornate décor and stillness of the stately home interiors, the Stubbs paintings take on a new presence when installed by museum workers and seen on gallery walls by a viewing public, and in turn upon their return home. Siegel’s film offers an intimate look into the world of cultural property, exploring the ownership of heritage and distinctions between private and public realms. 

Bloodlines exemplifies the artist’s understated mastery of form, revealing systems of class and inherited wealth, while subtly suggesting colonialism’s role in establishing and perpetuating these structures.

‘Bloodlines’ will also be on display at Thomas Dane Gallery, London, from 26 April – 23 July, 2022.

Pictured: Amie Siegel, Bloodlines, 2022, 4K colour video, sound © Amie Siegel.