We nurture by Shona Macnaughton was commissioned in the context of Collective’s redevelopment of the City Observatory site and an exchange taking place concurrently between arts organisations and artists working in 'caring' related environments in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Edinburgh. It is a response to Collective's invitation to undertake a critical evaluation during a time of organisational change and exists as a text, performance and webpage.
Shona's practice explores the political conditions around specific architectures and institutional frameworks. Looking through Collective's archives, Shona has focussed on shifts in language, graphic design, ideas of collectivity and care in its 34-year history. As Collective prepared to open the Observatory to the public, Shona asked 'how are different bodies cared for in a context heavy with Enlightenment symbolism and the trappings of a neoliberal institution comprised of retail, restaurant, gallery, and tourist destination?'
Shona Macnaughton is an artist based in Glasgow, making performance, writing and film concerned with labour, subjectivity and technology. Shona often stages scripts and actions that respond to the political conditions – that play out on the body – of specific architectural spaces. Selected previous projects include: Arms Length Government Body, Céline, Glasgow, 2016; The Universal School Girl, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh and Jerwood Space, London, 2016; When slaves on another, it’s not love, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 2014; and Every Translator is a Traitor, Collective, Edinburgh, 2013. Shona is part of the artist collective Eastern Surf.